Nearly two months had passed since the temperature spike. Time had reached late October, and deep autumn was about to arrive in November. Yet the weather remained scorching, with temperatures staying above sixty degrees. The only relief was that it hadn’t climbed any higher.
This gave humanity some much-needed breathing room. Because of this, life was gradually returning to a semblance of normalcy, people started going back to work and earning money.
At this time, the news of the blister disease patient being discharged naturally frightened a lot of people.
“Discharged already?”
Lin Su didn’t expect that when the He siblings came tonight, the first thing they mentioned wouldn’t be about Old Cheng being captured, but about the blister disease patient’s discharge.
He Rongxuan, without ceremony, grabbed a pack of beef jerky from the table, tore it open, and handed it to his sister before saying, “Last night, one patient was discharged. The case was relatively mild. After two months of treatment, it’s basically fine now.”
Lin Su hadn’t seen the blister disease patient herself, and the livestream hadn’t shown any updates in recent days, so she had no idea about the patient’s recovery.
But the He siblings naturally didn’t hold back.
“The scariest thing about this disease is that it directly causes the skin to ulcerate and dissolve. The patient with the mildest case lost a large portion of muscle in both arms.”
He Rongxuan recalled the robust man whose arms had bulged when he was admitted. By the time he was discharged, his arms were just skin and bones. If treatment hadn’t been timely, he might have lost his arms entirely.
“The only good news is that many people are now too afraid to go out in the sun. At least there haven’t been any new cases in the past few days.”
He Rongxuan found it ridiculous when recalling the hospital’s investigation results.
“Do you know what these people were thinking? Each of them believed that exposure to sunlight could give them abilities. Just half a month ago, people were still thinking that way. Now, seeing that anyone who goes out in the sun gets blister disease disease, they’ve finally learned their lesson.”
When the words “abilities” were mentioned, Lin Su and Wen Shiyun exchanged a glance. Both suspected that the space Da Long possessed was likely connected to either sunlight exposure or the red glow from the night of September 1.
But this was purely speculative. Lin Su didn’t dare let her family try it themselves. If they attempted it and didn’t gain a space, but instead developed blisters all over their body, it would be like shooting themselves in the foot.
After sending the He siblings off, Lin Su had no intention of going out herself. She sat across from Wen Shiyun, drinking tea, and shared some of her own speculations.
It was then that Wen Shiyun realized that back in the warehouse, Da Long had tried to trap a person in his space, but ultimately failed.
“The failure is because it was a human. The space can hold living things, but once a living thing is placed inside, it quickly suffocates and dies. Yet humans can’t be placed in it at all. Isn’t that contradictory? Humans are living creatures too, so why can’t they go into the space? And if living humans can’t be placed inside, what about the dead?”
Lin Su’s guesses were based on a simple idea. As for putting dead bodies into the space, that was just speculation. She would never actually attempt it. But if even the dead couldn’t be placed in the space, then the space’s rejection of humans would be obvious.
Extending to other, wilder thoughts, Lin Su suspected that this space definitely had other hidden tricks.
【Ding! Did I just hear that?】
【This cannon fodder is digging into the origins of the space…】
【I thought everyone in this world wasn’t very smart?】
【The more you think about it, the scarier it gets…】
Seeing Lin Su suddenly stiffen, Wen Shiyun knew the livestream comments had popped up again.
Sure enough, after a while, Lin Su judged that the comments had temporarily disappeared. She then subtly informed Wen Shiyun of what had been said.
After hearing it, Wen Shiyun nodded at her. At this moment, both of them had unsettling thoughts about the space.
Yet for now, the space was still the most important tool. It should remain safe for the foreseeable future. Otherwise, the final comment on the livestream wouldn’t have been made. The disappearance of the comments made Lin Su feel like whoever was behind them was preparing some kind of precaution.
Lin Su touched the tiny, nearly invisible dot on the inside of her wrist and decided that she would go out more often in the coming days to observe the situation outside.
Meanwhile, after news spread that a blister disease patient had been discharged, many people began to panic.
Hospitals across the country had admitted numerous blister disease patients. Only a very small portion with mild symptoms had begun to recover gradually over the past few days.
At first, these patients were not allowed to leave the hospital. But as their numbers grew, the authorities eventually decided to let them go home.
However, when these patients returned home, many were not welcomed by their families or neighbors. The reason was simple: their skin looked horrifying.
Sure enough, on the roads outside the villas, a scream suddenly rang out.
Lin Su and Wen Shiyun immediately went outside and saw several neighbors staring in shock at a mother and child walking ahead. The one screaming? It was none other than Zhou Mi.
“Ah!…”
Late at night, Zhou Mi had just stepped out of her house and suddenly saw a child whose skin was covered in pits and scars. Naturally, she screamed in fright.
After the initial scream, she quickly backed up a few steps, looking terrified.
Other neighbors who had heard the commotion also came out and saw the scene. Even some of the braver ones felt a chill of fear.
Lin Su looked over and saw a boy of about four or five, not a patch of healthy flesh anywhere on his face or body.
If she hadn’t heard others say he was Old Cheng’s son, she wouldn’t have recognized him at all, because Old Cheng’s son had always been a chubby little kid.
Old Cheng had gotten involved in so much trouble and was finally taken away by the security team. And just as he was being taken, his son had recovered and returned home. Nobody really knew what all Old Cheng had been doing or what it was for.
Meanwhile, Old Cheng’s wife reached out, trying to cover her son’s eyes. The scene almost looked touching, but the next second, the boy shoved his mother aside and roared at everyone around him, “What are you staring at?!”
The sight made a lot of people shake their heads.
“How did this blister disease patient recover and come back? It’s not contagious, right?”
“Who knows? After getting it, people turn that terrifying. I sure don’t want it.”
Zhou Mi was already furious at the boy’s roaring, her teeth practically grinding. But afraid of infection, she could only huddle behind the neighbors. Once the mother and son walked farther away, she started muttering curses under her breath.
“Lin Su…”
Seeing her ridiculous look, Lin Su just turned and went back home.
Across the country, screams had erupted in many places that night, some from joy at family members returning, others from sheer fright.
As a result, a wave of discrimination against blister disease patients began spreading online. People jumped around claiming the disease was contagious, turning the internet into chaos for several days. Eventually, the government stepped in to deal with them and held a dedicated press conference.
This press conference was the second major official one since the September announcement.
Because of the recent blister disease patient incident, Lin Su initially assumed the conference would focus on that. But after briefly clarifying that the patients were not contagious, the topic shifted to the bloody sky event.
“According to current research, the bloody sky was caused by a solar flare. This solar flare disrupted global communications, and currently, we can only maintain contact with neighboring countries. At the same time, many domestic power grids were impacted by electromagnetic waves from the explosion, causing some permanent damage.”
“Other effects caused by the solar flare are still under investigation. Residents who notice any suspicious symptoms should contact the security team immediately…”
“In addition, the prolonged high temperatures have continued for months. Observations show that the melting speed of glaciers at two levels is nearly 200 times faster than before. If temperatures remain high, glacier melting will not cause secondary disasters in our country.”
“However, our freshwater resources are being consumed too quickly. It is advised that…”
Each of these points addressed current environmental changes. Many people listening at home felt uneasy as the news unfolded.
Especially when it comes to freshwater, if one day it runs out, it’s bound to be another huge problem. The amount of freshwater produced by desalination is simply nowhere near enough to meet the current population’s needs.
The press conference sounded concise, but the amount of information it delivered was huge.
Many people worried that surviving in the future would become increasingly difficult. Lin Su, however, focused on the phrase “if any suspicious symptoms appear in the body.”
Could this mean the government had discovered more than one person with a spatial ability? If so, Lin Su felt somewhat relieved. At the very least, if some major disaster occurs in the future, having a space is far better than having none at all.
The press conference gave Lin Su a lot of information about the outside world, but it also triggered a new round of price hikes.
“Authentic Guangsheng dried shrimp, group-buy price 9,999 per jin.”
“Fresh home-grown vegetables, 999 yuan per head.”
“Pure milk still within shelf life, 2,999 yuan per crate.”
Her phone group chat kept buzzing nonstop, filled with group-buy and proxy-buy information, and the prices were terrifying.
Many people feared that in the future they would have nothing to eat or drink, so they started stockpiling again. Those selling goods, on the other hand, were optimistic that life would improve over time. To earn extra money, they brought out anything they could spare to sell.
Of course, the reason they were still able to charge for it was that an official app had released a daytime-use isolation suit.
Wearing this isolation suit protected the body from the harmful effects of sunlight. With it, people could move freely during the day without fearing sun-induced blister disease disease.
Such a valuable item came with a terrifying price, without a six-figure sum, it was impossible to buy.
To own a set of these isolation suits, anyone with resources and money gritted their teeth and bought one. If there weren’t rules limiting each person to a single suit, many would have hoarded them.
Naturally, Lin Su’s family each had one. As a patriotic family that had donated a large amount of supplies, they received three suits the moment the civilian-use version was released. Many people in the villa district had managed, through their own connections, to each grab one suit.
During this process, some people mocked those rushing to buy the isolation suits. After all, An City was still relatively safe.
But Lin Su knew that danger would inevitably arise in the future, forcing people to wear these suits and expose themselves to sunlight during the day.
And her intuition was about to be proven correct.