I handed in the sand sculpture through the book system

Although the news brought by Shu Bai is extremely important, in a nutshell, it is actually very simple—this spring, the bacillus plague bacillus, which has been dormant for an unknown amount of time, has finally healed its muscles and bones.

More than a month ago, Shu Bai checked a self-recovering case of plague in Jiangling City, but since then, the south bank of the Yangtze River has been calm and there have been no suspicious deaths. Although Jiangling Jiankang has been implementing the epidemic prevention system for dozens of days, But the spirit can not help but relax a lot.It wasn't until Shu Bai's routine inspection a few days ago that he found more than a dozen patients with unknown fever, severe vomiting, and even chills in the countryside outside Jiangling City. Because the inspection equipment was not complete, he thought it was food poisoning at first.However, the gastrointestinal medicine had no effect at all. Instead, the patient developed extremely obvious lymphatic swelling and joint pain a few days later, and Shu Bai was shocked to realize that something was wrong.

——However, at this time, there are at least twenty cases of fever patients in Jiangling City!

Even in a modern society with advanced medical science, plague is the number one disease in the infectious disease prevention law, and it is the "No. [-] disease" that medical scientists turn pale upon hearing of it.What's more, the medical treatment basically relied on self-healing in the Middle Ages?Shu Bai immediately activated the anti-epidemic procedures drawn up at the beginning of the crossing. While blocking Jiangling to organize medical investigations, he quickly set off for Jiankang, delivered samples to the crossing team stationed here, and issued an alarm at the same time—after Jiangling's superficial investigation, Most of the refugees who first became ill were related to Jiankang.I'm afraid that the plague has spread, and it has already reached Mu Chen's side.

Because the situation was really urgent, after calling several nearby consultants, Shu Bai just stood there and gave a brief explanation, handed over the germ samples to the logistics team for detailed inspection, and then hurried back to Jiangling to preside over the fight against the epidemic, not even having dinner in time Eat more.Later, the travelers came one after another, the duty room in Taicheng Metropolitan Province was brightly lit, and the meeting lasted until midnight.

·

In the early morning of the second day, the atmosphere in Jiankang City suddenly became serious and tense—the traversers removed the horns for getting up early every day, and replaced them with monotonous and loud slogans all over the streets. Young girls walked around the streets with their trumpets, repeatedly shouting the announcement from the Hengyang Palace, informing the people of Jiankang that there were signs of a plague in the city. His Highness has organized doctors and set up a so-called "epidemic prevention team" to take charge of many affairs in the city. All must obey.

Changes in government affairs such as the "epidemic prevention team" are of course not in the minds of the people of Jiankang (although the name "team" is indeed strange, and I don't know where His Highness learned the way), what they are most worried about is the announcement. The word "plague" was repeatedly emphasized.

Although the south of the Yangtze River is called a paradise, there is a disaster every five years and a plague once every ten years. Anyone who is a little bit older in the city is deeply impressed by the plague and fears it deeply.So all of a sudden, there was an uproar in the city, and there were discussions everywhere.

However, apart from exaggerating the panic and tension, the discussion among the people did not produce any results.Although the plague is coming, the ordinary people have nowhere to go even if they flee.The older ones murmured, thinking about offering sacrifices to the god of plague and plague ghosts, and praying for the gods to show their respect; the younger ones were entangled with each other, and their behaviors were quite contradictory: they had heard the preaching of the nobles of the Hengyang Palace, but they were always dubious when things came to an end—old people sacrificed to the god of plague It's weird, but the "microorganisms" that the nobles say are invisible to the human eye seem completely incomprehensible...

These kinds of ideas are intertwined and mixed, which has aroused a lot of panic among the people.In addition, the sudden tightening of epidemic prevention measures made it difficult for the people of Jiankang to accept it for a while, and there was a lot of complaints in the city for a while.Traveler's Note even strengthened its control before finally implementing the propaganda.

But only two days later, all the complaints about the epidemic prevention measures disappeared, replaced by a terrible and dignified atmosphere that enveloped Jiankang City. The streets and alleys were so sparsely populated that they seemed to be mostly empty for a while.

——Without him, the plague finally broke out, and it broke out beyond everyone's expectations.

On the day of the notification, the traversers organized an emergency test for all high-risk groups, and the test results were extremely tragic—out of the thousands of testees initially screened by the colloidal gold method, twelve cases were directly found positive!

After seeing this data, the face of the medical team instantly became paler than the report card in their hands.In order to keep the consultant silent, he pulled out his pen and wrote an order directly on the back of the report, requesting that all non-essential economic activities be suspended from now on, and the medical team should be organized as best as possible.

But compared with the speed of the plague, their response was still too slow and too late... On the second day after the notification, the medical team and the special forces were all dispatched, and all the local aborigines who had received epidemic prevention training were mobilized, and they tried their best to expand the epidemic. the detection range.This test involved tens of thousands, and the result was a little closer to the truth—they found nearly a hundred cases of infection, which is already extremely alarming in proportion.

So far, the plague has finally bared its fangs.The rapid and hidden infection before was just the outpost of the attack. In just a dozen hours, the patients who were screened out quickly developed high fever, vomiting and even delirium, followed by the characteristic rash and lymphoma of the plague.Although the medical team has urgently administered streptomycin and cephalosporins, the immunity of the civilian population in the Middle Ages was too weak, and the progress of the disease was still incredibly fast.By the early morning of the third day, the temporarily isolated shelter hospital had begun to echo the wailing of the patients—the lymph was gradually festering under the erosion of Yersinia pestis, and the severe pain caused by this was absolutely unbearable.

The sound insulation of the urgently built hospital is not very good. This horrible scream echoes in the empty streets of Jiankang City. After the scream, there is a death-like silence in fear. Crying—that’s the family members of the quarantined patients struggling and crying, waiting for the fate of their loved ones in extreme panic...Of course, they may not wait for that time—how could a germ of the level of plague leave behind a disease that is as good as the plague? What about the fish that slipped through the net that patients get along with day and night?

These wailings were more effective than any warning, and on the afternoon of the third day, all complaints and doubts about the epidemic prevention policy disappeared.The wind in Jiankang City was turbulent, there were very few people in the market, and the sparse people were all hurrying.Everyone on the street covered their mouths and noses tightly with a white cloth, and lined up in front of the urgently opened snack department of the advisory group with low eyebrows, waiting to receive the unified distribution of grain and rice supplies.Only a few bold people looked up, and carefully glanced at the stickers in front of the canteen—the red paper on a white background clearly stated the patients who were screened out every day.

Since the Advisory Group experimented with literacy among workers, many have been able to recognize the size of numbers.They looked carefully at the numbers on the stickers, and finally came to a terrible conclusion—in the past few days, the number of cases has not decreased, but has increased.

So the worker who looked up shivered, carefully lowered his head again.

·

If the fear of the people in Jiankang is only based on the intuitive feeling of screaming and crying, then what the traversers fear is more specific and detailed.On the evening of the third day, the consultant of the medical team handed over a briefing to Mu Chen.In just a few pages, almost all shocking news:

The virus is highly toxic; the incubation period of the disease is more than five days; based on the current data analysis, the basic infection number is about 6…

Mu Chen couldn't read anymore, he dropped the briefing, his face was almost bloodless:

"Really—really so powerful?"

The medical advisor didn't speak, just smiled at him tiredly.

Since Shu Bai stayed in Jiangling, Jiankang City's epidemic prevention has been taken care of by the new consultant Zhang Yaozhang.Consultant Zhang was originally an expert in the virus laboratory of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He has seen many notorious pathogens after practicing. However, he has been confronted with Yersinia pestis head-on for several days, and he still has lingering fears in his dealings.She was silent for a moment, watching Mu Chen slowly sit down, and finally took a step forward, telling the last and most important news.

"We checked the recently discovered cases." She said softly: "Generally speaking, the situation is not quite right. As far as the current situation is concerned, the incubation period and toxicity of Yersinia pestis... are too high, bizarrely high."

Mu Chen subconsciously sat up straight: "What?"

Zhang Yao sighed, and slowly said the most terrible inference:

"According to different transmission methods, plague is divided into pneumonic plague, bubonic plague and septicemic plague. Among them, pneumonic plague has the strongest transmissibility and toxicity, but the incubation period is only 24 hours, so the threat is far inferior to bubonic plague. But now... ..."

She hesitated for a moment, then whispered:

"Judging from the performance of the cases, the plague this time is quite virulent, but the incubation period is basically more than five days, which can be said to have left the most sufficient room for the spread of the bacteria. Such a performance is difficult to explain with individual differences. The previous logistics team also After examining the samples sent by Dr. Shu, our guess is... this time it may be a new variant of the plague."

Mu Chen opened his mouth. He still remembered the bloody storm that the new variant of the coronavirus had caused in the world, so when he heard the word "mutant", he was instinctively afraid.But after much deliberation, I could only speak carefully and ask the experts:

"Is that... serious?"

Zhang Yao was silent for a moment.With the rigor of a virologist, she certainly couldn't say what was serious or not before getting accurate analysis data.But in the deepest part of her heart, the intuition of the scientific researchers was desperately sending her an alarm—the testing instruments they brought to the Middle Ages were not complete and could only do the simplest observations.But in such simple data, Zhang Yao can also smell some kind of danger... The opponents hidden behind these cases are definitely not ordinary opponents.

She exhaled slowly, trying to calm down her words.

"We can't make a conclusion at the moment." Zhang Yao said softly: "We need to send the samples back to Hyundai and wait for the results there."

After saying this sentence, Zhang Yao picked up the report and planned to leave.But when she turned around, she still hesitated a little, and finally bowed slightly to Muchen.

"Mr. Mu." Zhang Yao said, "Please try to be mentally prepared."

·

In less than a few days, Mu Chen fully understood Zhang Yao's warning.In such a short period of time, the plague has fully demonstrated its terrifying power as the king of infectious diseases-Muchen reviewed the briefings every day, watched the unchecked growth and spread of the number of confirmed cases, and watched the infected areas on the map. The spread is increasing, and even the death cases that eventually appear, the fear in the heart is growing like a spider web.

Remember

But he couldn't express any fear—the newly confirmed cases every day quickly drained the human resources in the city, every modern person had to catch up with the ducks, gritted his teeth and took over all the work left behind by the medical team , leading the aborigines to clean up the city, prepare supplies, and monitor the inside and outside.Under such powerful persecution, they spin around every day, and even eat and sleep can only be perfunctory. When people are forced to this level, even peaceful sleep is a luxury, and they can no longer express fear and anxiety. personal emotions.

——To put it bluntly, germs are not interested in listening to lyrics!

If manpower can still be forcibly squeezed, and supplies can still be supplied by reserves, then the plague spreads so exponentially that it finally penetrates their medical resources.By the afternoon of the fifth day, the temporary hospital had been fully occupied, and Mu Chen had to issue an order to mobilize all the land that the crossing team could control, including the palace and palace that had been emptied before.

Most of the concubines and courtiers in the court were dismissed, and it was nothing if they were recruited.But after Xiang Liang finished drafting the document, he privately reminded Mu Chen that in the court, except the emperor, he could not move around, and the medicine man Xiao Xuan who fell from the sky was also raised in the inner court, where should he move?

Mu Chen was already so busy that his mind was dizzy, and he really didn't have time to take care of these trivial matters. He asked Xiao Xuan's recent situation, and knew that although this person was still demented, he was conscious at any rate, so after thinking for a while, he waved his hand to let Xiang Liang Move him to the provincial duty room.

Xiang Liang pondered for a while, but he reminded him euphemistically—although the duty room is public, Mu Chen lives most of the time by himself. Would it be convenient for Xiao Xuan to move in with him?

Mu Chen hesitated for a moment, but after much deliberation, he couldn't think of any extra room. At this moment, his nerves were swollen, and he finally made a decision impatiently:

"Is he aggressive?—No? That's fine."

Mu Chen opened a document and quickly put the matter behind him.

·

In the early morning of the eighth day, after repeated torment, the advisory group finally received the rare good news—an official report from Hyundai, informing them that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had ordered tens of thousands of temporary plague vaccines, and it would be available soon. Transport them over to help them contain the epidemic.

There have been no plague outbreaks in the East for decades, and the CDC has long since run out of vaccine reserves.Now that they can be urgently searched out within a few days, it is considered to have mobilized all the resources at their disposal. It is obvious that they attach great importance to this plague, and the reason for the importance is also very simple-the report comes with a test report from the national laboratory , after analyzing the genetic material of the samples, the experts came to a key conclusion: the Yersinia pestis that caused the outbreak was indeed a variant, or a very dangerous variant—this new-born bacteria skillfully balanced the conflict between toxicity and incubation period, and thus Become a Gu king who is beyond the original poisonous strain.

At the time-travelers' plenary meeting, the report stirred predictable tension.Most people can't understand the specific analysis, but they can also know the ruthlessness of the Gu King by reading the briefing.Zhang Yao and other experts flipped through the report, but their expressions were equally ugly.The laboratory's conclusion is quite straightforward—this bacteria is not a pure variant that evolved spontaneously. Judging from the fusion traces of DNA, it should be the product of the hybridization of two types of plague, the northern and southern ones.

...However, the northern and southern strains of plague are separated by thousands of miles, how could they hybridize for no reason?

She put down the report, reached out and kneaded the center of her eyebrows, feeling that she had stayed up too long, and even her bones were aching.

"Is there any information about the Northern Army recently?" she asked softly.

This sentence was earth-shattering, causing small waves in the silent conference room.Xiang Liang suddenly raised his head, but frowned slightly:

"You suspect the Northern Army?"

"It can only be them." Zhang Yao exhaled: "There will be a large number of people moving between the army, which is a natural petri dish for germs. Moreover, most of the horses and supplies of the Northern Army come from the grassland. As long as you are not careful, you can bring a few mice. According to the theory of epidemiology, the two black death plagues that swept across Europe that year may have been caused by the fleas brought by the Mongols' westward expeditions."

Epidemiology is Zhang Yao's field of expertise, so of course Xiang Liang can't talk too much.He thought for a while, and spit out the movements of the Northern Army in the past few days:

"Since Yi Cheng and Du Heng went on missions, the Northern Dynasty has abided by the agreement and gradually retreated the army. But four or five days ago, our drones observed that the Northern Army had stopped moving, burning corpses and digging pits in the suburbs. Landfill, there should be an epidemic, and the situation is quite troublesome..."

He handed over the phone.Zhang Yao reached out to take it, but saw nothing on the screen.It's a high-definition picture taken by a drone, but the distance is too far, and you can only vaguely see the corpse covered in thick smoke on the wood pile.And beside the corpse, countless soldiers gathered to guard, and even the flash of swords could be seen.

"This is--?"

"Mutiny." Xiang Liang said in a low voice: "The epidemic came too violently, and the hasty withdrawal seriously hurt morale, so the entire army was in an unstable posture... This is just a sample. In the past few days, the whole battalion has simply been on alert. People are burned at night."

He leaned forward and swipe the screen, and the next photo was indeed the stars and fire in the dark night, and the figure became more and more hazy.

Of course Zhang Yao couldn't see anything from this.She stared for a long time before turning off the screen.

Xiang Liang said: "This is just a routine inspection. If necessary, we can use ultra-low altitude patrols at night. We should be able to capture the details of the corpse..."

"No." Zhang Yao's voice was cold, but she shook her head resolutely: "Just a photo of a dead body, what can I tell? - I want samples, autopsy, transduction, traceability, and find out the details of this new variant as soon as possible .If it is really a hybrid between the north and the south, then there will never be only one such hybrid! If I sit here and rely on the photos to guess, it is tantamount to allowing the bacteria to continue to mutate and spread, and it is tantamount to sitting on the sidelines of the poisonous nest to raise Gu. The northern army must be confirmed as soon as possible The situation is urgent.”

She casually threw the mobile phone on the table, glanced left and right at the consultants with different expressions, and smiled at the corners of her mouth swollen from staying up late.

"I'm applying to transfer a helicopter." She said softly, "I wonder if it's possible?"

·

Mu Chen wrapped her little quilt tightly, and curled up in a ball on the seat of the plane.

Although his beloved little quilt is so warm, he still can't help itching his nose because of the cold and windy wind at a height of thousands of meters:

"Ah!"

Hearing this sound, Zhang Yao who was sitting in front immediately turned around with a concerned expression:

"Mr. Mu, are you okay?"

Mu Chen quickly shook his head to indicate that he was fine.It's a pity that there was a gap in his little quilt when he moved, so he tilted his head without hesitation, and sneezed again.

Zhang Yao sighed: "Mr. Mu, there is no need for you to follow. In fact, this trip must be very safe, and there is no need for emergency assistance from the system..."

Mu Chen shook his head and didn't speak. He just turned his head and looked out of the plane window, watching a red sun slowly rise in the east, and the night chill was still vaguely floating in the air.

——Considering the frequent changes of soldiers in the Northern Army, the order of the barracks is about to collapse. Once the mutiny bombs the camp, it is tantamount to dropping hundreds of thousands of mobile infection sources near the Yangtze River.For this reason, Zhang Yao repeatedly insisted that the consultant team had to rush to work overnight, and made all the plans for this emergency dispatch. Under the premise of absolute safety, the medical consultant should be airlifted to the northern army camp to collect samples, and at the same time control the northern army. epidemic……

The task is so heavy and the time is so tight, it can be regarded as an extraordinary performance of the consultants to barely complete it.Now Muchen leaned on the plane seat, and could still feel the dizziness after staying up all night, as if his mind was frozen.

Of course, it doesn't matter if you freeze or not, Mu Chen stared wide-eyed at the vast wilderness passing by under the plane. Spring comes and winter goes, the wilderness is already green and full of vitality. Seeing the stretch of tents hidden in the undulating hills, the strange brown color is like a rock.

However, after careful inspection from the plane, Mu Chen couldn't see a figure in the camp... There were no sentries, no patrols, and no civilians who went in and out. All he could see was a silent, stiff, and motionless wooden house. .These brown timbers are undulating on the field, and there is only the sound of the wind whimpering between the roof trusses; when viewed from a distance, it looks like a whole row of empty coffins.

Mu Chen's heart skipped a beat, and then he remembered Xiang Liang's explanation...Obviously, such deathly silence is just the most fragile numbness before the chaos. As long as there is a slight fluctuation in the tent, I'm afraid it will be the first to destroy this critter. The plague afflicted the army to the point of mental breakdown.

In this sudden panic, the helicopter had already flown to the front of the camp.There was a slight noise in Mu Chen's ears, and Xiang Liang's voice came from the earphone:

"Can we start?"

Mu Chen hesitated for a moment, but finally sighed.

"Although I don't want to play tricks, I can only use expedient measures." He shook his head and said, "Let's get started!"

Immediately, the sound of electric current on the earphones came to mind, and a moment later, a helicopter passed behind them and circled slowly in front of the camp.Mu Chen looked up and saw that the belly of the helicopter protruded slightly, and then cast a column of dazzling white light.

Immediately afterwards, a hazy figure quietly emerged from the white light, and slowly raised its arms towards the air.Although the light is dim and the morning breeze is blowing, one can still recognize the inhuman beauty of the transcendent gender in the shadow's face when viewed from a distance.Mu Chen narrowed his eyes and looked around, and happened to be able to see the shadow lowering his head slowly, with infinite compassion on his holy face.

Mu Chen was greatly impressed, and couldn't help blurting out: "Liu Heng is so awesome!"

——Although the time was extremely tight, Consultant Liu actually handed in such a beautiful answer sheet as scheduled after a night of anger. This level is really superb!

There were two whispers in his ear, and Liu Heng's weak voice came:

"...Thank you for the compliment—this is a 3D human figure drawn by my sister. I lost the folder and forgot to delete it. I didn't expect it to come in handy today. Anyway, Nanbeichao doesn't know anything about ab Europe—"

There was a sudden noise around the earphones, followed by a strange cough.Mu Chen couldn't hear clearly, and finally said curiously:

"ab what?"

Liu Heng coughed louder:

"—Okay, now it's time to add bgm!" He inexplicably raised his voice: "Only by adding the right bgm can there be an atmosphere. I've been searching in the resource library for a long time, and it's on the USB drive—what about my USB drive?" ?”

There was a crackling noise on the side of the earphones, and from time to time Liu Heng muttered vaguely about "obviously brought it". After a while, there was a tick on the opposite side, and finally there was a soft sound after the USB disk was connected.Mu Chen glanced around, and sure enough, he saw the helicopter shaking slightly in front of him, and then there was a smooth, loud but rhythmic melody——

—— Rhythm dynamic?

Ji Muchen's earphones squeaked, and Xiang Liang's furious roar came:

"What the hell are you holding?!——Then it's my second aunt's square dance accompaniment USB flash drive!"