Infection (Part 2)

"Don't stop her! Find a way to make her spit everything out! Hurry up!" Mo Li shouted loudly, staring at the wriggling worms in the vomit.

Hearing Mo Li's shout, the bearded man was startled. However, when he saw the pool of vomit Mo Li was staring at, his expression also changed. Immediately, the bearded man helped the girl up from the ground, went behind her, hugged her with both hands, wrapping his arms around her waist. Then, he clenched one fist and placed the thumb side of his fist on her abdomen, above the navel and below the rib cage. With his other hand, he grabbed his fist and rapidly struck upwards, compressing the girl's abdomen.

Mo Li recognized this as a first-aid technique called the Heimlich maneuver, usually used to help someone who has food lodged in their trachea. As the girl's stomach was likely still spasming from her previous vomiting, this method would help her vomit again.

After several repeated attempts, the girl finally vomited again. Her vomit still contained those worms, and their numbers were uncountable.

Seeing that the girl had vomited out so many worms, Mo Li's expression turned serious. He had never seen these worms before, and given how many she had vomited, it was likely her body still harbored a large number of them. This situation was very dangerous.

The girl could no longer vomit anything substantial; the last few mouthfuls were even just water. Forcing her to vomit any further would cause significant harm to her body. Therefore, the bearded man had the girl lie down on the ground. The girl, just like before, curled up clutching her stomach. Her facial expression clearly showed she was in great pain.

Looking at the suffering girl, both the bearded man and Mo Li were helpless. They had no idea how to save her at this point.

"It seems this meat must be the problem," Mo Li sighed helplessly, then turned to look at the piece of meat the girl had thrown on the ground.

However, just as Mo Li finished speaking, the bearded man shook his head and said, "No! This meat is very fresh. It shouldn't be the meat. Besides, I've eaten the meat delivered these past few days, and I'm fine."

Hearing the bearded man's words, Mo Li frowned, then mumbled with a confused expression, "If it's not the meat, then what is it?"

"I don't know! I ate what the Princess ate, and drank the same water. Why am I okay?" The bearded man sounded somewhat agitated.

"Think carefully, did she eat anything that you didn't?" Mo Li pressed further.

"Does it even matter now? What can we do even if we find out? We can't get out of here!" The bearded man finally lost it, shouting at Mo Li.

Perhaps it was the bearded man's loud shout that woke up Wei Dengke from his unconscious state. The guy seemed groggy from sleep and suddenly sat up, looking around blankly, and shouted in panic, "What's wrong? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Mo Li and the bearded man were clearly not expecting Wei Dengke to suddenly sit up. They both looked at him in surprise. Wei Dengke seemed to have regained some of his senses. After glancing at Mo Li and the bearded man, Wei Dengke scratched his head and asked, "Mo Li, where are we?"

"I don't know where we are, but we were likely brought here and imprisoned by Yetis," Mo Li replied somewhat bitterly.

Hearing Mo Li's words, Wei Dengke pouted, then looked at Zhong Lichun, who was still unconscious beside him. At that moment, the girl suddenly let out a scream, which startled the newly awakened Wei Dengke.

Turning to look at the girl curled up on the ground clutching her stomach, Wei Dengke asked confusedly, "Who is this girl? What's wrong with her?"

"This is the Princess you were looking for. She seems to have eaten something she shouldn't have and got infected with parasites," Mo Li answered.

Upon hearing that this girl was their target, Wei Dengke's face immediately lit up with excitement. He got up from the ground, but perhaps due to lingering effects of gas poisoning, he swayed a few times after standing up and almost fell again. Fortunately, Mo Li was not far from him and quickly went to support him.

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

"How would I know? Do you think I'm like you? But there were those worms in her vomit just now. You can take a look yourself," Mo Li said with a dismissive tone, pointing at the vomit on the ground.

Wei Dengke pushed Mo Li away, then walked to the vomit and squatted down to examine it closely. Quite a few of the worms in the vomit had already died, and some, though not dead, were barely alive. Wei Dengke didn't seem to mind the mess and picked up a small worm, bringing it closer to his eyes. The worm was about six to seven millimeters long, mostly blackish-gray, pointed at both ends and wider in the middle, with spiral-like folds on its body.

Frowning and thinking for a long time, Wei Dengke seemed to recall something and slapped his forehead with his other hand. Then he said, "I know what this worm is. It's called a Hepatocurvospiral Worm, a parasite that likes to infest the human stomach and intestines."

"Ah? What kind of spiral worm? I've never heard of it before," Mo Li's confusion only grew upon hearing Wei Dengke's words, and he pressed further.

"It's normal that you haven't heard of it. This worm actually doesn't exist in our era. It was first discovered in fossils from the Permian period. However, more than thirty years ago, a biologist discovered living specimens of this worm in an ice core sample while surveying Antarctica. But specimens of this worm are extremely rare. How could she have been infected with this parasite here?" Wei Dengke explained.

"Since you recognize this worm, do you have a way to save the Princess?" The bearded man became excited upon hearing Wei Dengke's words and asked anxiously.

"Treatment? This parasite was only experimented on a few times due to its rarity, and humans have never been infected before, so I don't know how to treat it," Wei Dengke replied with a troubled shake of his head.

"Weren't you here to rescue us? Now the Princess is like this, and you're telling me you can't do anything?" The bearded man was truly desperate now. He rushed to Wei Dengke, grabbed him by the neck, lifted him up, and roared in anger.

"Calm down, everyone! Our top priority right now is to save the Princess, not to argue here!" Mo Li saw that the bearded man was about to make a move and quickly ran over, grabbed the bearded man's arm, and tried to persuade him.