The same thing happened everywhere . Wang Yao had found in the other villagers in the county, especially those isolated ones, the empty nest phenomenon was more common . More than half of the houses in those villages were empty . Compared to those villagers, Nanshan was not too bad .
“Maybe in the next 10 to 20 years, people from those big cities will want to move to countryside,” Wang Yao said with a smile .
Compared to living in the city, living in the countryside had its advantages . First, the environment in the countryside was better . The air was fresher, and there was less pollution . Second, the vegetables people ate in the countryside were mostly from their own backyard . Therefore, people living in the countryside had more chances to access healthy food .
In fact, a lot of people from the big cities nowadays chose to settle in smaller cities, which were less polluted and more suitable to live in . Haiqu was one of those smaller cities . A lot of people from Beijing had purchased a property in Haiqu . They came to Haiqu to escape the heat every summer .
These things happened as time changed . It was not a bad thing for a city to have a smaller population . At least, Wang Yao didn’t think it was a bad thing .
“Dad, I think you should smoke less,” Wang Yao said .
He gave each of his parents a massage after dinner . When he was massaging his father, he noticed Wang Fenghua was a bit short of breath . He took a look at his father, who was generally fine, but shouldn’t smoke so many cigarettes every day . He didn’t want his father to quit smoking completely, since he knew smoking was his father’s biggest hobby . Wang Fenghua could live without alcohol but not cigarettes .
“OK,” Wang Fenghua said . He had been smoking a lot lately .
It was very quiet at night in the village . Wang Yao walked alone on the concrete road . He then went up to the hills in the distance . Soon, the light of his cottage on Nanshan Hill was turned on .
Baa! A sheep was baaing in the midnight . It was actually an usual thing . People who had sheep in their household would find that sheep were timid animals, especially at night . They barely made any sound . Sheep were the easiest to steal . However, this sheep was loud at night .
“Hey!” The hostess of the house poked her husband, who was sleeping .
“What?” her husband asked .
“The sheep was baaing just now . Can you go out to take a look?” she asked .
“Really? How come I didn’t hear anything?” Her husband sat up and rubbed his eyes . He intently listened but didn’t hear anything .
Both of them listened but neither of them heard anything .
“Are you sure you were not dreaming?” the husband asked .
“I really heard a sheep baaing just now . Just go and take a look,” his wife said .
“OK, OK . I’ll go out to take a look . ” As his wife insisted, the man put on a jacket and went out with a torch . He flashed the torch at the sheep-pen . He didn’t find any sheep missing or anything wrong . Then, he walked around the sheep-pen to make sure everything was alright before returning to the house .
“Is everything alright?” his wife asked .
“Yes, you must have misheard something . Let’s go back to sleep,” her husband said .
The woman looked through the window . She was sure she heard something .
The next morning, a sheep died in the sheep-pen . The woman found the dead sheep on her way to the toilet .
“Oh my god!” the woman shouted .
A sheep was worth several hundreds of yuan . Plus, it was a female sheep, which could breed more sheep .
The woman’s husband didn’t say anything . He had a close look at the dead sheep and patted its belly . Something was not right .
“I need to cut it open,” the man said .
Most of the villagers didn’t know how to butcher a sheep . It was not an easy job to butcher a pig or a sheep . One couldn’t just simply stab the animal . It was a job requiring skills . Therefore, the man asked a villager who knew how to butcher a sheep to do the job .
“Holy sh*t!” the butcher shouted . “What the hell is this?”
After the sheep had been cut open, they found a large number of black spots inside the sheep’s stomach . Those black spots were moving, like bugs moving on rotten meat . It really scared them .
Bugs! Everyone’s face went pale . They shivered with horror . The scene was absolutely terrifying .
The bugs had been gobbling up organs inside the sheep . All the organs had been damaged, and these bugs were creeping around .
“Burn it!” one of the villagers shouted .
Someone fetched the gas immediately to light the sheep up . The sheep was on fire and releasing and unpleasant odor and crackling sound .
“Why are there bugs inside the sheep?” the owner of the sheep asked .
Those who witnessed the horrible scene were all shocked and worried .
“Fengmin, what did you feed your sheep?” a villager asked .
“Nothing unusual . ” Wang Fengmin’s face was pale . He was still in shock .
He was concerned that the same thing could happen to his other sheep . What concerned him more was whether the same thing would happen to his family . Suddenly he ran toward his house like a maniac .
“What’s wrong with you? Have you sold the sheep?” his wife grumpily asked . “You still have blood on your hand . ”
“Where is Haoxiang?” Wang Fengmin asked anxiously .
“In the room, why?” his wife asked .
Wang Fengmin rushed into the room and found his son playing blocks happily .
“Hi, Dad,” Haoxiang said .
“Come on, let’s go to see a doctor . ” Wang Fengmin carried Haoxiang and walked toward the door .
“What are you doing? It’s so cold outside!” His wife came into the room . She was bewildered by her husband’s behavior .
“Put his clothes on . Let’s go see Yao,” Wang Fengmin said .
“What’s wrong?” his wife asked .
“The dead sheep was filled with black bugs . It was disgusting!” When mentioning the bugs, he shivered again .
“Bugs? Where are the bugs from?” His wife’s face changed .
“How am I supposed to know? What if the bugs went into your body?” Wang Fengmin asked .
This was what concerned him most . He couldn’t imagine what would happen if his stomach was full of black bugs .
“OK, let’s go!” His wife helped Haoxiang put on the clothes . Then, they went to Wang Yao’s clinic all together .
Wang Yao hadn’t been in the clinic for long . He heard people coming into the clinic and banging the door . He frowned . Then, he saw Wang Fengmin, his wife, and their son .
“Hello, Uncle, Auntie,” Wang Yao said .
“Yao, please take a look at Haoxiang to see if there are any bugs inside him,” Wang Fengmin anxiously said .
“Bugs?” Wang Yao asked with surprise . “What bugs?”
“Please take a look at him,” Wang Fengmin said .
Wang Yao immediately took a look at Haoxiang, who was about 6 years old .
The bugs have invaded into the villagers’ bodies?
He didn’t find any parasites inside Haoxiang’s body . Haoxiang was healthy .
“He’s fine,” Wang Yao said .
“That’s great!” Wang Fengmin breathed a big sigh of relief .
“Can you also take a look at me and my wife?” Wang Fengmin asked
“Sure,” Wang Yao said .
Wang Yao took a look at Wang Fengmin and his wife without asking what had happened .
“There is no parasites inside you or your wife’s body . However, you have stones in your kidney . Be aware of your lifestyle,” Wang Yao said .
“What? Stones?” Wang Fengmin asked .
“Yes, kidney stones,” Wang Yao said . “It’s not serious at this stage . You need to drink a lot of water and exercise to get the stones out of your body . Try not to drink too much alcohol or eat too much meat . ” Kidney stones were most likely caused by poor lifestyle . “Now, tell me why you think there are bugs in your body . ”
“Well, it’s a long story!” Wang Fengmin told Wang Yao what had happened in the morning .
Poisonous insects! Wang Yao immediately knew Wang Fengmin was talking about the poisonous insects left behind by Huang Zhicheng . Damn!
What Wang Yao had been worried about had happened . Those poisonous insects were reproducing, and the speed of multiplication was rapid . It was horrible . As for what Wang Fengmin and his wife had been concerned, what if those poisonous insects had invaded a human body?
“Uncle, I’ll take a look at your house . ” Wang Yao was worried .
“OK,” Wang Fengmin said .
Wang Yao went to Wang Fengmin’s house to check his sheep .
“Yao, you know how to treat animals as well?” Wang Fengmin asked curiously . He had heard from the other villagers that Wang Yao was a good doctor, but he didn’t know Wang Yao was also a vet .
Of course, Wang Yao was not a vet . However, he had some idea of an animal’s body structure since he tested herbs on San Xian from time to time . In addition, there was not much difference between treating an animal and treating a human being, let alone that animals were equal to human being in terms of rights .