I picked up a boyfriend in the infinite game

Chapter 244, 4th Hall, 9

The sunlight warmed the alleyway slightly, but the damp soil showed no signs of drying out. It felt soft underfoot, and occasionally you could hear a "crunch" under your feet, as if something was being crushed.

Shi Sui, hands in his pockets, walked unsteadily at the front, leading the way. Chen Wenyu clutched a worn-out registration book, occasionally glancing down to check the pre-written consultation outline.

The alley was long and narrow, with houses crammed together on both sides. Large patches of plaster had peeled off the walls, revealing the dark gray bricks underneath, like the cracked skin of an old man. The roof tiles were incomplete, and in some places, tattered tarpaulins were laid out, making a rustling sound when the wind blew.

Zhao Xiaoyun followed beside the two, gently fiddling with the curls by her ears, her gaze sweeping over the lintels of each door and the muddy ground.

Every household had splashed lime water at their doorsteps, which condensed into a thin layer of white frost on the dark ground, with pale gray water stains spreading around the edges. When the wind blew, it carried a pungent, acrid smell, making Chen Wenyu involuntarily cover his nose.

knock knock knock.

Shi Sui raised her hand and knocked on the wooden door of the first house, her voice lazy: "Is anyone home? The medical team needs to register patients' conditions."

Shi Sui tilted her head slightly, looking at the withered mugwort hanging on the lintel. The leaves were yellow and brittle, and the edges curled up as if they had been scorched by fire.

There was a moment of silence inside the door before a soft creaking sound came from inside. The sound of the door hinges turning was like rusty gears, making one's ears ache.

A withered arm emerged first, its fingernails embedded with black mud, followed by a face wearing a sallow mask. The exposed eye sockets were sunken, and the eyes were numb as if covered with a layer of gray. It was a middle-aged man.

"Another medical team..." His voice was hoarse, as if there was sand stuck in his throat. His gaze swept over the three people without any emotion. "Register them. They can't cure you anyway."

Chen Wenyu quickly leaned forward, his pen tracing patterns on the paper: "May I ask your name? What are your main symptoms?"

The man leaned against the doorframe and coughed twice: "Li Laosan." He paused, as if he couldn't remember his symptoms, and after a while he mumbled, "Cough... I feel weak, sometimes I have a fever, the same as always."

Shi Sui raised an eyebrow and glanced into the room. The room was dimly lit, and he could see some tattered cloths piled up beside the earthen bed. There seemed to be a person curled up in the corner of the bed, motionless, and he didn't know whether they were dead or alive.

"Are you all alone at home?" he asked casually, his fingertips tapping on the doorframe, his expression a half-smile.

Li Laosan's eyes flickered, but he didn't answer directly. He just urged, "Let's leave after you've registered. Don't delay things."

Just as Chen Wenyu wrote down "Li Laosan, cough, fatigue, fever" in his notebook, he suddenly heard a muffled thud from inside the room, as if something had fallen off the kang (a heated brick bed).

Li Laosan's expression changed drastically, and he yanked the door back: "That's all! You all need to leave now!"

Zhao Xiaoyun took a step forward and gripped the door tightly: "Is there anyone else inside? Has their condition worsened? We are doctors, can we help take a look?"

Li Laosan, however, suddenly exploded like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, reaching out to shove Zhao Xiaoyun: "I don't need your help! Get out! The doctors who came before were useless! They were all liars!"

He was incredibly strong. Zhao Xiaoyun staggered back two steps, and Shi Sui quickly reached out to support her. His face darkened, but he didn't lash out. Now was not the time to get into a conflict with the residents.

“Okay, let’s go.” Shi Sui pulled Chen Wenyu back, her tone turning cold. “Take care of yourself. If you’re really feeling unwell, come to the clinic to find us.”

Li Laosan slammed the wooden door shut.

Shi Sui and the others looked at each other in bewilderment. The three of them did not rush to leave, but waited at the door for a while. Sure enough, a series of rapid, light sounds came from behind the silent door, sounding like dragging, as if they were hiding something.

Chen Wenyu clutched the register: "Has something happened to someone in his house?"

“Who knows,” Shi Sui shrugged. “Everyone here seems to be hiding something.” He turned to Zhao Xiaoyun. “Are you alright?”

Zhao Xiaoyun shook her head and tidied her disheveled hair: "There must be someone inside, but he won't let us in, it's more like... he's afraid we'll actually cure him."

Shi Sui didn't care much; he just wanted everyone here to die. As for whether they could be cured, that was none of his business.

The three continued walking forward. The door of the next house was ajar. It opened with a gentle push. The house was filled with a strong smell of herbs mixed with a musty smell, which made Chen Wenyu cough.

An old woman sat on a small stool, clutching a withered twig in her hand, drawing random lines on the ground while muttering incoherently, as if saying, "My darling... my darling..."

It sounds like someone is mourning the death of their child.

"Grandma, we're from the medical team, here to register patients' conditions," Chen Wenyu said softly, afraid of disturbing her.

The old woman seemed not to hear, continuing to draw with her head down. The sound of the branches scratching the ground was "rustling," and the lines were twisted like snakes.

Zhao Xiaoyun walked over to her, squatted down, and tried to soften her voice: "Where do you feel unwell? Let us take a look."

The old woman suddenly looked up, her eyes bloodshot: "My darling... my darling..." she said, suddenly grabbing Zhao Xiaoyun's wrist, her nails digging deep into her skin, "Give me my darling! Give me my darling!!"

Zhao Xiaoyun's heart tightened, and she forcefully pulled her hand back, leaving several red marks on her wrist.

Chen Wenyu quickly pulled her behind him, standing between the two of them: "Grandma, don't do anything reckless."

The old woman seemed to have all her strength drained away, collapsing to the ground and muttering to herself again, "They're all dead...they're all dead..."

Chen Wenyu quickly wrote in the register: Unknown name, mentally confused, talking nonsense.

"Grandma, what you mean by 'darling'..." Chen Wenyu was about to ask when the old woman curled up and moved to the corner of the wall, refusing to speak again.

The three had no choice but to leave. As the wind blew, the mugwort on the lintel rustled softly, and the tiny leaves fell onto the stone ground, quickly becoming soaked and spreading into a small patch of grayish-green, much like dried bloodstains.

They went door to door to register people, some refused to open the door, some cursed and swore, and some even chased them out of the house with brooms before they could even speak.

The further you go in, the more dilapidated the houses on both sides become. Some window frames are rotten and held together by wooden planks with blurry red marks on them, as if scratched with fingernails. Some unknown wild grasses grow at the base of the walls, their leaves dark green and covered with sticky mud, looking particularly eerie.

Zhao Xiaoyun reached out and touched the mugwort at a nearby house. Some fine powder touched her fingertips. She brought her hand closer to smell it. Besides the medicinal smell of the mugwort itself, there was also a faint, almost imperceptible fishy smell. "Is this used for epidemic prevention?"

"Epidemic prevention?" Shi Sui scoffed. "I feel like it's more like trying to cover something up?"

Chen Wenyu didn't speak. He flipped through the registration book in his hand, then suddenly said, "We've registered almost ten households, how come we haven't seen a single dead person?"

Upon hearing this, both Shi Sui and Zhao Xiaoyun paused in shock.

Yes, since entering the instance, the residents I've encountered have been either apathetic or insane. Occasionally, I hear noises coming from inside the houses, but I've never seen anyone carrying a corpse out, let alone any so-called deceased from illness.

According to Jia Weimin, the alley was ravaged by the plague, and people should be dying from the disease every day. However, as he walked along the alley, apart from the lingering smell of blood, he did not see a single trace of death.

“Just now at Li Laosan’s house, there was clearly some noise inside, but he absolutely refused to let us see,” Zhao Xiaoyun said, rubbing the red mark on her wrist with her fingertips, her eyes darkening. “And that old woman who was talking nonsense…”

Shi Sui straightened up, her expression less relaxed: "Go ask the next household."

I took two steps forward and came across a house with its door open. A middle-aged woman was bending down and tidying up a broken basket by the door, which was filled with some withered vegetable leaves.

Chen Wenyu quickly stepped forward and asked softly, "Auntie, we're from the medical team, registering patients' conditions. How are your family members? Has anyone in the alley recently... died from the epidemic?"

The woman paused in her work, and when she looked up, her face was ashen, just like Li Laosan's, but her eyes held a hint of wariness: "Deceased? Yes, every day." She lowered her voice, "But we don't have to worry about it. Brother Jia will arrange for someone to collect them, take them to the morgue at the end of the village, and burn them that same day, saying it's to prevent the spread."

"Burned?" Shi Sui raised an eyebrow and glanced at the end of the alley, where it was blocked by dense branches and only a blurry gray shadow could be seen. "Then why don't we smell any burning? We haven't even seen a wisp of smoke since this morning."

The woman's eyes flickered, and she lowered her head to continue tidying up the vegetable leaves. Her voice was muffled: "It's normal that you can't smell it because it was far away when it was burned and the wind was strong. Don't ask any more questions. Hurry up and finish registering and leave. We have to get back to the clinic before dark. It's not safe before curfew." As she spoke, she retreated into the house, as if deliberately avoiding the topic.

The three of them didn't ask any more questions. They watched as the woman closed the wooden door, and the mugwort on the door swayed with the door panel, causing a few broken leaves to fall.

"The morgue? Burned?" Chen Wenyu gripped the register tightly. "But Song Guicheng's nose is so sensitive. If someone really burned a body, there's no way he wouldn't have smelled the burning!"

Shi Sui's face also darkened completely, and his eyes became sharper: "Either no one burned the corpses at all; or they didn't burn 'people'."

He looked up into the depths of the alley, the direction of the morgue completely obscured by tree branches, as if hiding a huge secret. "And this lime water and mugwort, I'm afraid it's not to prevent the plague, but to prevent those... things that weren't burned."

Zhao Xiaoyun glanced at the lime water and mugwort at the door of each household and said with certainty, "But whether it's a corpse or something being burned, it's definitely related to Jia Weimin."

Chen Wenyu silently looked up. The sky above the alley was cut into a thin strip by the eaves of the houses on both sides. Even in the daytime, the light seemed dim, as if covered by a thick layer of gray fog.

The three stood there, looking at the tightly closed wooden doors on both sides and the withered mugwort on the lintels. They felt that this alley was like a huge cage, the numb residents were the wild beasts in the cage, and they, the medical team, might have already become the new targets in the cage.