Third Chapter: Analyzing the Situation
Xiang Kun vigorously rubbed the skin on his face and arms. The hardened layer of dead skin soon came off, revealing the smooth, new skin underneath.
He ran a hand through his hair. It seemed to be stuck to his head, and came away in great handfuls at the slightest tug.
After taking a shower and scrubbing himself all over, Xiang Kun stood before the mirror again. The person looking back at him was clearly much younger. His bald head looked a little odd, and the teeth in his mouth, still not fully grown, made him look even stranger.
He put the chicken, which was long dead and even starting to stink, into a garbage bag, wrapping it in several layers. After cleaning up the feathers and blood scattered around the house, he sat down in the only chair in his room and began thinking through everything that had happened to him.
There was no doubt that it had all started after he got drunk on Thursday night. When he woke up, his body had begun to act strangely.
He had no appetite for ordinary food and threw up whatever he ate, yet he felt an inexplicable craving for animal blood. He had even bought a live chicken, cut its throat, and drunk its blood.
He remembered the whole process of buying the chicken, killing it, and drinking its blood clearly. But at the time, he had felt as if his body's instincts and hunger were driving him, leaving him unable to control himself.
Now, after drinking the chicken's blood and sleeping for a day, he had shed a layer of skin, lost all his hair, and lost all his teeth, which had begun growing back. When he had just showered, he had also noticed that the nails on his fingers and toes had come off, with a layer of thin, tender new nails growing underneath.
Unless all of this was an illusion, it clearly wasn't caused by a hangover, excess internal heat, or lack of sleep. Nor was it any illness he had ever heard of or seen.
Scenes from the novels and films he had encountered flashed through his mind, then settled on three words:
Vampire.
If someone had told Xiang Kun before last Thursday that he would turn into a vampire, he would have thought they were either crazy or a fraud.
But now, faced with the changes to his body and everything he had experienced, he couldn't stop thinking of those three words.
He opened his laptop and searched for his symptoms. As expected, he found no "scientific" explanation. Pica, rabies, and porphyria were all very different from what he was experiencing. At the very least, none of them explained why his teeth had grown back or why he was shedding skin all over.
As a programmer, using a VPN to access Google was second nature to him. But searching the English-language web turned up only a pile of obviously unreliable legends, none of which matched his symptoms exactly.
What should he do now?
See a doctor?
Having hospital equipment and medical professionals examine him would surely help him understand what was happening to his body.
But how was he supposed to explain it to a doctor? I got drunk, and afterward I suddenly couldn't eat normally. I throw up everything I eat, but I've developed a taste for chicken blood. Then I drank some, slept, and woke up with a new layer of skin, a new set of teeth, and no hair?
Assuming he had some kind of illness, the fact that he couldn't find any similar cases online could only mean one of two things:
One, he was the first person to get this illness;
Two, previous cases had been deliberately concealed and never made public.
Either way, if Xiang Kun sought medical help, there was a good chance he would become a person of special interest, and might even lose his freedom under the guise of "protective custody."
At that point, he might not need to worry about medical bills, but the hospital or other institutions might not make saving his life or curing him their top priority. Their focus would be on the illness he had contracted.
So after careful consideration, he decided to stay away from the hospital for now, unless his "condition" deteriorated beyond his control or became life-threatening.
Of course, there was a risk. If this really was a potentially fatal illness, he might miss the best opportunity for treatment.
Xiang Kun created a new Word document on his laptop, then put on his glasses and got ready to type. Suddenly, he felt a little dizzy, and the image on the screen seemed to warp.
He took off his glasses, and the problem immediately disappeared. Realizing what that meant, Xiang Kun pulled the curtains open a little and looked at the words on a distant billboard. He could now read several slogans that he hadn't been able to see without his glasses before. His vision was still noticeably nearsighted, but it had improved a great deal.
After what had happened to his teeth and skin, Xiang Kun immediately realized this was another "symptom."
He ran his tongue over his teeth, then went to the bathroom to check the mirror. It was nearly six o'clock, more than an hour after he had woken up at four. His teeth had already grown significantly. At this rate, they might be back to normal by tomorrow morning, and the cavities he'd had before were gone, too.
Xiang Kun returned to the computer and rapidly typed into the document:
Assume that the factor responsible for all the changes to my body is X.
One, possible causes of X:
1. The alcohol I drank or the food I ate at the barbecue stall on the evening of July 11 was contaminated;
2. A hereditary disease was triggered by an external factor, such as alcohol;
3. I was infected with a virus or bacteria another way, such as being bitten by some kind of insect;
4. Something happened after I got home drunk and fell asleep, without my knowledge;
5. Other.
Two, physical changes caused by X:
1. Shedding skin all over, with the new skin healthier and smoother, and previous scars gone; teeth and nails replaced; hair lost; nearsightedness greatly improved;
2. Unable to eat ordinary food; anything eaten is quickly thrown up;
3. An inexplicable bloodlust; the smell of blood draws me in and triggers intense hunger, driving my body to seek blood. Drinking blood brings a feeling of satisfaction and makes me sleepy;
4. Other changes not yet discovered.
Three, how to deal with X:
1. Investigate the cause of X;
2. Record the changes to my body and figure out their causes and patterns;
3. Find a solution to the problem of eating.
Looking at the document he had written, Xiang Kun rubbed his chin. Most of the changes to his body seemed to be beneficial. Even if his hair didn't grow back, that wouldn't make much difference.
To put it in game terms, most of the changes to his body were buffs rather than debuffs.
Except for the problem of eating.
People needed food to live. Without it, they couldn't get the energy they needed to survive and would die. But from the evening of July 11 to today, July 15, he had eaten nothing except for the chicken's blood, because he threw up everything he ate.
He didn't believe that a little blood could provide all the energy he needed to survive.
Xiang Kun poured himself a cup of warm water and drank it, then sat still for ten minutes. His stomach didn't react at all, which clearly meant it didn't reject water.
So he found the half-carton of boxed milk he had bought earlier, poured some into a cup, and drank it all in one go.
Twenty seconds later, Xiang Kun rushed to the toilet and threw it all up.
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