Chapter 147
Chapter 147
What was happening?!
I frowned as a flicker of unease passed through me.
“Uh… ngh, ngh…”
Yao Nan continued making strange noises. Looking utterly panicked, she suddenly seized my hand in a tight grip.
Her beautiful eyes stared into mine, already brimming with tears.
Clearly, this was no joke.
I immediately asked, “Your throat… You suddenly can’t speak?”
“Ngh, ngh.”
Yao Nan whimpered as she nodded hard.
By then, the others nearby had also realized something was wrong.
Wang Dachun hurried over, his face anxious.
“What’s wrong, Yao Nan? Did you lose your voice? You can’t talk?”
Yao Nan nodded again, then looked at me pleadingly.
One of the girls dancing backup beside her asked anxiously, “Xiaonan, did you catch a cold or get sick? Did your throat get inflamed and make you lose your voice?”
Her name was Deng Liqian, one of Yao Nan’s closest friends.
Yao Nan shook her head frantically, indicating that she had no symptoms of a cold or any other illness.
I said gravely, “Impossible! No cold can make someone lose their voice in an instant. How could you be perfectly fine one second and completely mute the next? Come on. We need to get you to the infirmary now!”
Yao Nan had clearly lost her head to panic. No matter what I said, she nodded.
Perhaps because she was so frightened, tears had begun streaming from her eyes and rolling down her smooth cheeks.
Wang Dachun glared at the crowd and bellowed, “Get the hell out of the way! Can’t you see someone needs to get to the infirmary? Why are you blocking the path?”
He had always been hot-tempered. Although he had stopped going around making trouble after accepting me as his boss, he was still one of the school’s little tyrants.
He had something of a fearsome reputation.
At his roar, the onlookers blocking our way hurriedly scattered.
With Wang Dachun and me guarding Yao Nan on either side, we rushed all the way to the infirmary in the administration building.
I could faintly hear some people behind us whispering that the New Year’s gala was right around the corner, and after something like this, Yao Nan’s solo performance was probably finished…
Yao Nan likely didn’t hear them. Otherwise, she would only have become even more upset.
A few minutes later, we reached the infirmary.
Without even bothering to knock, we pushed the door open.
The school doctor was sitting at a computer playing Minesweeper.
“Dr. Liu, we’re from Class Three of the seventh grade. Yao Nan, our class arts representative, suddenly lost her voice just now. It looks serious.”
I called out loudly and went straight to the point, clearly explaining both her condition and how it had developed.
The school doctor’s last name was Liu, and he had a fairly good reputation among the students.
Seeing how anxious we were, he quickly stood up from the computer and had us help Yao Nan into a chair nearby. He washed and disinfected his hands, prepared his medical instruments, then put on a mask and got ready to examine her.
I patted Yao Nan on the shoulder and said softly, “All right, don’t be afraid. The doctor will take care of it.”
Beside me, Wang Dachun nodded furiously like a chicken pecking grain.
“That’s right! Don’t worry, Yao Nan. Dr. Liu will prescribe some anti-inflammatory medicine, and you’ll be fine tomorrow. First prize for the vocal performances at the New Year’s gala will still belong to our class for sure.”
With Wang Dachun and me comforting her, Yao Nan gradually calmed down. Her tears stopped flowing, and the expression on her face became less tense.
Even so, strange whimpers and sobbing noises still escaped her from time to time.
Dr. Liu began the examination…
First, he had Yao Nan try to make a sound. Then he gently felt her throat with his fingers. After that, he asked her to open her mouth and shone a powerful medical flashlight inside.
As the examination continued, the expression on his face grew increasingly strange.
I watched him repeat the process several times before he finally stopped for the moment.
I hurriedly asked, “Dr. Liu, how is Yao Nan? What’s wrong with her?”
Looking baffled, he said, “I can’t explain it either… Yao Nan’s condition is extremely unusual. I examined her, but there is no inflammation in her mouth from a cold or fever whatsoever.”
“But when I feel it gently with my fingers, there seems to be a mass lower down in her throat. I suspect something like a tumor may be obstructing it.”
A tumor?!
Wang Dachun and I were both shocked.
Neither of us knew much about medicine or disease, but the word tumor certainly sounded serious.
Besides, whenever we heard about tumors, it was usually some middle-aged or elderly person who had developed one somewhere.
Yao Nan was still so young. How could she have a tumor?
Dr. Liu waved his hand, telling us not to panic yet.
“I didn’t say it was definitely a tumor. It only feels a little like one. But a tumor certainly couldn’t present this acutely. From what you two said, Yao Nan has been rehearsing her solo for the New Year’s gala lately without any trouble, correct?”
“Yeah. We heard her singing normally just ten or fifteen minutes ago. She sounded great,” Wang Dachun replied, looking lost.
Dr. Liu nodded.
“That’s precisely what’s strange! Generally speaking, tumors are chronic conditions. They can’t present this abruptly. If Yao Nan has been perfectly normal lately and could still sing just now, she couldn’t possibly lose her voice all of a sudden.”
“But when I touch it, it really does feel like a tumor.”
Still puzzled, he reached out and gently felt the area slightly below Yao Nan’s throat once more.
I stared fixedly at the spot.
Suddenly!
Dr. Liu cried out in surprise and jerked his hand back.
He looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“What’s going on? Th-this tumor… Why does it feel as if it’s getting bigger? How is that possible? What kind of illness is this?”
I was startled too.
Then I saw the area of Yao Nan’s throat he had just been feeling. Something seemed to rise beneath her skin, pushing the fair, delicate flesh of her neck outward into a bulge about the size of a thumb tip.
It looked as if some kind of swollen mass had formed on her throat!
Could a tumor grow that quickly?
Thoroughly alarmed, Dr. Liu hurriedly asked, “Yao Nan, do you feel… any discomfort? Does it hurt? Or itch?”
Yao Nan shook her head.
Apparently, she couldn’t feel anything at all.
She simply remained unable to speak.
My expression darkened further and further.
If this wasn’t an ordinary medical condition, then it was probably…
At that moment, Dr. Liu said that since the lump in her throat had grown, he would check it with the flashlight again to see if anything new had appeared.
He asked Yao Nan to open her mouth once more, then shone the beam inside.
As he looked, his hand suddenly trembled, and he nearly dropped the flashlight.
He staggered two steps backward, his expression frightened.
My sense of foreboding intensified. I hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong, Dr. Liu? Did you find something bad?”
“I… I don’t know whether I saw it wrong, but there seems to be a black mass in Yao Nan’s throat. It’s extremely obvious. But when I examined her two minutes ago, there clearly wasn’t anything there!”
By the end, his voice held even more bewilderment and uncertainty.
“And… and I don’t know if I imagined it, but I thought I saw the black mass move. How could a tumor move? Have I stared at the computer so long today that my eyes are playing tricks on me?”
Dr. Liu looked completely confused. He even patted his head and rubbed his eyes.
He must have been genuinely astonished to lose his composure like this in front of two middle-school students.
Watching from the chair, Yao Nan immediately grew tense again, and tears welled in her eyes once more… After all, she had only lost her voice. There was nothing wrong with her eyes or ears.
She had heard every word of our conversation perfectly clearly.
My expression grew darker as I listened to Dr. Liu’s description.
I drew a deep breath and tried to make myself appear calm.
“Dr. Liu, could you let me have a look?”
He froze and gave me a baffled glance.
I calmly repeated my request.
“Uh… all right. She’s your classmate, so take a look if you want. This is only a school infirmary, after all. I can handle minor problems here, but for a more complicated condition like this, I recommend getting her to the town hospital right away–or hiring a car and taking her to the county hospital tonight.”
As he spoke, Dr. Liu handed me the medical flashlight and the little concave mirror he had worn on his head so I could examine her.
“Yao Nan, don’t be afraid. Let me take a look.”
I comforted her gently, then asked her to open her mouth.
Fear and confusion filled Yao Nan’s face. She probably had no idea what good my looking would do. Did I know medicine or something?
Carefully, I pressed down her tongue with a pair of forceps and peered into her throat.
Sure enough!
I also saw a mass of black matter lodged deep in Yao Nan’s throat. It resembled a fleshy growth stuck to the throat wall, and it was still squirming faintly.
I studied it carefully for several moments to make certain.
Then I released the forceps, stepped back, and returned the instruments to the doctor. Keeping my voice as calm as possible, I said, “Thank you, Dr. Liu. We’ll take Yao Nan to the town hospital right away.”
“Yes, yes. You’d better hurry. Don’t delay. Let your homeroom teacher know about this too, and contact Yao Nan’s parents.”
Dr. Liu continued reminding us to keep her calm.
The three of us walked out of the infirmary.
Wang Dachun glanced at me and chose his words carefully.
“Boss, I feel like you suddenly got really angry. Is something wrong?”
Yao Nan also gazed at me through tear-filled eyes. She could probably sense my anger too.
My face must have been livid by then!
I said grimly, “We aren’t going to the hospital. This isn’t a disease. I can cure it. Let’s find an empty classroom somewhere in this building.”
What?!
Wang Dachun and Yao Nan were both shocked. They stared at me blankly.
Yao Nan in particular looked at me as if I were insane.
I frowned. “What are you so surprised about, Dachun? Isn’t Yao Nan’s condition similar to what happened when you couldn’t stop drinking water? I treated you then too.”
Oh!
Understanding dawned on Wang Dachun. Lowering his voice, he whispered, “Boss, you mean… Yao Nan was also attacked by something filthy and terrifying…?”
“It’s still a little different. Stop wasting time! If we delay too long, I can’t guarantee there won’t be lasting damage. If those insects burrow into her blood or damage the meridians and acupoints near her throat, this will become even more troublesome.”
My voice was icy.
Insects?!
Wang Dachun stared at Yao Nan’s throat and shuddered.
When Yao Nan heard that, a wave of nausea swept over her. She seemed to want to vomit but couldn’t.
The infirmary was in our school’s multipurpose building. The building had been constructed only a few years earlier and was quite large. Besides the infirmary and the school administrators’ offices, it contained ordinary classrooms, lecture halls, and multimedia rooms, many of which still stood empty.
We picked an ordinary classroom at the end of the hallway, opened the door, and went inside.
Yao Nan couldn’t speak, but when she saw chalk on the desk, she picked up a piece and wrote directly on the blackboard: What in the world are you two up to?
By then, Wang Dachun seemed to have calmed down. He grinned at her.
“Sis-in-law, Boss is about to reveal his secret to you. Ow–don’t hit me…”
He hurriedly dodged the piece of chalk Yao Nan threw at him.
I frowned. “That’s enough. Yao Nan, I’m going to start treating your throat. No matter what you see in a moment, you must stay calm. Don’t move around, and don’t scream. Understand?”
She gave me a puzzled look, but ultimately chose to trust me and nodded hard.
And so, I prepared to begin!
First, I took a small cloth pouch from my coat pocket. It was filled with cinnabar. Carefully, I used the cinnabar to draw a circle on the classroom floor.
Then I pulled a paper talisman from my pocket…
Yao Nan’s eyes instantly went wide. She stared at me in disbelief, making a string of inarticulate noises.
Clearly, the sight of things like cinnabar and paper talismans struck her as inconceivable.
I frowned. “Didn’t I tell you to stay calm? Stop making noises and behave.”
Beside us, Wang Dachun whispered, “Yao Nan, now you’ll get to see the real Brother Wu… He’s unbelievably cool and handsome!”