It had only been a few days since the destruction of the 16 communication points of the Afterlife Cult but the worst case scenario had still happened.
Gu Jun stood outside the quarantine room at Bei He City People's Hospital. Accompanying him were Deng Ximei, Uncle Dan, Phecda's dermatologist, Zhang Haidong and Sun Wei. They had seen the pictures of Xie Yiman's face from afar and they all believed it was not a normal allergy or dermatitis.
This was because the irregular protrusions formed a strange pattern, it looked like the limbs of the Lord of R'yleh in the relief.
Or was it a skin disease? Or was it caused by some other disease? Was it contagious?
The aftermath of the legionella pneumonia had not subsided but Phecda had to prepare for the worst.
Inside the room, Xie Yiman paced around anxiously. Her face was swollen from the constant scratching and some parts of her skin were torn. This caused her originally youthful and charming face to appear somewhat distorted.
The death of a young patient was always a source of sadness but the death of a beautiful thing was also a source of regret.
Everyone looked at the girl and their hearts ached.
Of course, Gu Jun knew about Xie Yiman. Two years ago, when his world was not like this, he was quite fond of this new actress' movies. However, after the incident last year, he did not have the time to pay attention to her anymore. At the time, he really did not expect this day to come.
When they walked into the room, Xie Yiman was instantly excited. Even though they were all in protective gear, she could still recognize Gu Jun's face.
The company was hoping that if she could land the main lead role in Phecda's movie, they would find a chance to pair her with Gu Jun for marketing purposes.
After greeting everyone, Gu Jun said, "Miss Xie, we suspect your illness is related to abnormal energy, we will run some tests on you."
He was less than half a meter away from Xie Yiman. Looking at her face at such a close distance, he felt like he was hallucinating …
When Xie Yiman opened her mouth to speak, he saw her teeth turn into jagged fangs and her oral cavity was dyed black.
Deng Ximei silently nodded at Gu Jun. She felt that it had something to do with the Conqueror Worm.
Uncle Dan conducted the normal procedures. He had Xie Yiman press the cleansing stone on her, but none of them worked. Xie Yiman was still unable to resist the itch.
Then, Zhang Haidong, Sun Wei, and several other specialists examined her. From the dermatology department's point of view, her symptoms were erythema, severe itching, local edema, and now there were scratches and other secondary skin lesions. Other than the rapid progression of the disease and the specific shape of the erythema, there were no other abnormalities.
The most urgent thing now was to figure out its cause and pathogenesis, and whether it was contagious.
Therefore, Xie Yiman's skin had to be scraped immediately, and the tissue fluid taken out for rapid PCR screening, as well as subsequent bacterial culture and so on, to see if there were any bacteria, viruses, or parasites in her active skin lesions.
"My face …" When Xie Yiman heard the word "cut", she immediately became nervous and wanted to say something.
"Miss Xie, please understand the situation we are in." Gu Jun understood her concern and comforted her in a gentle voice. "Furthermore, we only need to make a small incision at each location to scrape off some tissue fluid. It's no different from pinching the skin with your fingernails. After that, we can use a band-aid to stop the bleeding without leaving any scars."
Xie Yiman still could not calm down. Soon, a nurse arrived with tools like scalpels and smears.
In reality, she had something more important to worry about than these small wounds. If she looked into the mirror again, she would see the severity of the disease on her face.
"Ah Mei, do you think this is contagious?" Gu Jun asked Deng Ximei as he watched Zhang Haidong perform the skin scraping on Xie Yiman. Deng Ximei's opinion was very important.
Someone like Xie Yiman, was she a 'Lydia'?
"If it's just a feeling," Deng Ximei said softly, "I feel like this is a random selection of the actors on stage."
'Random selection?' Gu Jun fell into deep thought. Faced with so many people, the randomness of misfortune, the finality of death …
If that was the case, not only celebrities, other 'actors' would be in danger as well.
But perhaps there was a piece of good news? For now, the audience outside the stage would not be in danger of infection.
After the skin scraping, the specialists prescribed some anti-allergy and anti-infection drugs for Xie Yiman. They also tried to use the 'No. 1 drug', which was effective in treating Legionnaires, and applied boric acid to stop the itching. Before the cause of the disease was confirmed, that was the only thing they could do.
The disease control center's alert had been sent to the entire country. All the hospitals in the country that received patients with this skin condition were to be quarantined and reported immediately.
In the wee hours of the morning, the PCR results came out, and the usual bacteria and viruses were not detected.
Xie Yiman's agent, assistant and the film crew that had been in contact with her for days, none of them showed any symptoms.
However, the second and third patients still showed up. The disease was spreading like wildfire on the 'stage'. Actors, singers, models, hosts, streamers and so on. By noon the next day, 136 patients had been diagnosed. They were spread across the country. Among them, there were celebrities but there were also nobodies.
At the same time, this unknown disease also broke out in the United States, England, and other countries.
The number of patients worldwide had exceeded one thousand. Many successful celebrities were on the list.
It was on a global scale again. Before GOA and WMO were officially established, they were already being challenged …
The pathology of the patients was the same. Their faces started to itch and the more they scratched, the more itchy it became. When it reached a tipping point, there would be erythema and edema.
However, the time it took for them to reach the tipping point was different. From the information collected, it appeared that the more famous the person, the faster the time.
For now, the news was still being hidden from the public. The relevant insiders had all been quarantined.
However, if it continued to spread, it would not be hidden for long because people would suddenly realize that the actors on stage had disappeared.
"Ah Jun, could this be the Mutated Scale Disease mentioned by the Great Atal?" Tong Ye and the rest had this question. The Mutated Scale Disease in the prophecy was the growth of scales all over the body. That was obviously a skin disease. Based on the medical experts' analysis, it could only be skin hyperkeratosis, forming a scale-like keratinized skin.
"It's not impossible." Gu Jun had already thought about it. The Deep Ones …
What was the relationship between the abnormal creatures who worshipped the Lord of R'yleh and the Mutated Scale Disease? And now all the patients had the red spots that looked like limbs on their faces …
However, the Mutated Scale Disease was so important in the legends. Even if it was not contagious, it must have the ability to cause serious consequences.
Whether it was the Mutated Scale Disease or not was still a question. Now they were faced with many problems and there was no cure.
The No. 1 drug was useless, Cloratadine was useless, boric acid was useless … even the local anaesthetic was useless.
"Ah ah …" In less than a day, Xie Yiman, who was the first to be admitted, looked much more haggard. Ever since the illness started, she had not slept or rested. The itchiness on her face slowly increased. She had scratched at many places. If not for the sterile quarantine room, she would have been easily infected.
She didn't want to scratch. She didn't want to have any skin damage, and the medical staff didn't want her to scratch either. However, if she didn't scratch, she would feel so itchy that she didn't want to live. This caused her to have tachycardia, breathing difficulties, and other symptoms. Moreover, her mental state had become worrying.
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