Chapter 104: Roots and Stems?

The late-night arrival startled the innkeepers as well. No one knew exactly what was happening; Qi Yan only said that the young girl traveling with them had fallen ill and that they needed to find a vehicle immediately to rush her to the county hospital. This small village inn was considered relatively “high-end” but didn’t even have air conditioning installed. Even if there was a clinic nearby, the conditions would surely be poor.

They managed to find some alcohol, clean towels, and other basic supplies, then quickly closed the door to the room.

Elder Yan first rummaged through his bag and pulled out a slender stainless steel knife. He disinfected it with alcohol and then briefly passed it through a flame.

Next, he applied some alcohol to the patch on Ding Lingzi’s back. The cool sensation slightly eased her discomfort.

“Little Ding, hang in there, bite down on this…” He slipped a small towel into her mouth.

Elder Yan concentrated fully, carefully using the sterilized blade to make a tiny cut in her skin. It wasn’t very painful since he only opened a small wound about a centimeter long on the surface.

But when he tried to prod the mysterious object with the tip of the knife, Ding Lingzi began to convulse involuntarily, biting down hard on the towel and emitting soft whimpers.

A few drops of blood oozed out. Xuan Xuan quickly helped wipe it clean.

Actually, Elder Yan did not intend to remove the entire foreign object on the spot. He only wanted to extract a small piece for closer examination.

However, although it wasn’t deeply embedded, the object had already fused with some of Ding Lingzi’s muscle tissue. Despite its thin, vein-like appearance, it was remarkably tough and resilient. Even a slight tug caused her unbearable pain.

“Scissors! Little Qi, sterilize the scissors and hand them over!”

Following emergency wound care protocols, Qi Yan sterilized a small pair of scissors, but Elder Yan shook his head. “No, that’s too big. Does anyone have smaller scissors?”

Xuan Xuan immediately said, “I do! The kind for trimming eyebrows, it’s in the outermost pocket of my bag.”

Qi Yan fetched them, sterilized the scissors, and handed them over.

After about a minute of painstaking effort, they managed to cut out a small segment—only about one centimeter long—of the foreign object from Ding Lingzi’s opened wound.

Ding Lingzi relaxed as if a heavy burden had been lifted, removing the towel from her mouth and breathing deeply.

Xuan Xuan took over and rinsed off the blood from the object with clean water. Elder Yan wrapped Ding Lingzi’s wound with gauze.

Once finished, Xuan Xuan cleaned the extracted piece thoroughly. It resembled a thick piece of wire.

Holding it with the small scissors, Qi Yan turned on his phone’s light to take a closer look.

It was dark green and very small. Xuan Xuan brought it close to her nose and sniffed, frowning. “What is this… It smells strange.”

“What kind of smell? Let me try.” Elder Yan wiped his hands and sniffed as well, his expression mirroring Xuan Xuan’s confusion.

He took a closer look and gently pinched it with the scissors’ edge. A small amount of liquid oozed out.

After studying it for a long moment, Elder Yan ventured a guess, “Not a bug. This… this looks more like… a plant’s root or rhizome?”

Soon, the faint scent emanating from the object reached Qi Yan’s nose as well.

“Let me smell it!” he leaned in and inhaled sharply, then exclaimed, “This smell… it’s familiar!”

Though the object was disgusting and the idea of something growing under human skin was revolting, the smell was not pungent or foul. Instead, it carried a faint, delicate fragrance.

“Have you smelled something like this before?” Elder Yan asked.

Qi Yan nodded. “Yeah, just at dusk, remember when we were going past the livestock shed? I mentioned smelling a strange fragrance drifting from somewhere. No one paid much attention then, but I’m sure I’m not mistaken. It’s the same scent.”

The three of them focused their gaze on the tip of the scissors, observing the liquid secretion, the overall shape of the growth in Ding Lingzi’s back, and the shared faint fragrance. Taken together, it seemed Elder Yan’s guess was correct: it wasn’t a parasite or some other creature, but truly a kind of plant root.

In other words, to define it precisely, it had taken root and sprouted beneath Ding Lingzi’s back muscles and skin.

No matter how strange or bizarre this was, now was not the time to analyze further.

Elder Yan placed the small root segment into a sealable glass vial and instructed everyone, “Pack up your things. Once Dalong finds a vehicle, we must leave immediately. Ma Shan has to get her to the hospital. Whatever this is, it absolutely cannot continue growing inside a person!”

Fortunately, it was only under the skin, and Ding Lingzi’s symptoms had progressed quickly; otherwise, the situation could have been worse.

Judging by the trend, they definitely needed to go to the hospital, where a specialized dermatologist or surgeon could carefully remove the growth. They would never dare to act recklessly.

“I vaguely remember that at the time, Ding Lingzi, Brother Hao, and I all smelled this fragrance, but Elder Yan, you were talking to the innkeeper, and Sister Xuan Xuan said her rhinitis flared up so she didn’t notice…” Qi Yan added this reminder.

Elder Yan’s expression shifted. “You mean… the reason this thing grew on Little Ding’s back is because she smelled that fragrance?”

He lowered his head, pondering briefly, then nodded. “That makes sense. Otherwise, how would we explain the identical scent? There must be a connection.”

At that moment, Qi Yan suddenly recalled something. He crouched by the bed and asked the drowsy Ding Lingzi, “Ding Lingzi, did you first feel a sudden heat spreading through your body before you started feeling worse?”

Ding Lingzi turned slightly on her side and weakly nodded, seemingly too exhausted to speak.

“Elder Yan!” Qi Yan stood up quickly upon hearing her reply. “Does anyone have a thermometer?”

People generally don’t carry thermometers around, but Xuan Xuan happened to have one. Besides her other identity, she worked as a tour guide and was accustomed to carrying basic medical supplies on her frequent outings.

She handed over a small mercury thermometer. Qi Yan placed it under Ding Lingzi’s armpit and waited silently.

Taking advantage of the moment, Xuan Xuan said, “Actually, when Little Ding first started feeling unwell, I measured her temperature. It was 38.5 degrees Celsius… I immediately thought she had a fever.”

When the waiting time was over, Qi Yan took out the thermometer and checked—it read 38 degrees.

A temperature above 37 degrees is generally considered a fever. Yet, aside from the fever, Qi Yan didn’t observe any other cold symptoms: no headache, dizziness, limb weakness, or breathing difficulties. It didn’t quite fit the profile of a normal fever.

Elder Yan glanced at the reading and looked even more alarmed. “Little Qi, you too…” He hesitated briefly, then quickly asked, “Do you have anything similar growing on you?”

The night was heavy with uncertainty.