Stranger Danger

Chapter 156: A Strange Patient

“If the aura clinging to my body is Bronze Toad’s dying curse, then why do I feel just fine, Qingyou?”

Ye Qing was currently at Heavenly Heart Clinic. He was consulting Feng Qingyou on his recent experience. After leaving Cockcrow Alley and compiling everything that had happened today in a report, Ye Qing had gone out on a stroll and somehow found himself in front of Heavenly Heart Clinic. It totally wasn’t because he was planning to visit Feng Qingyou, oh no. He just thought that the intelligent woman might know something about the weird aura that was persistently clinging to his body. Yes, his motives were entirely pure.

To his surprise, Feng Qingyou actually recognized the aura. She set down the medical book she was reading and explained, “I suppose that a curse isn’t the best way to describe it. Sometimes, a Stranger would leave a mark on its killer. A kin of the Stranger would easily recognize this mark and know their killer.”

“I see! It’s a mark of vengeance!” Ye Qing exclaimed in realization.

“You can say that,” confirmed Feng Qingyou with a smile.

Ye Qing relaxed knowing that the aura, however annoying, was ultimately harmless. However, he did not like being on his guard all the time either, so he asked, “Do you know a way to eliminate this mark, Qingyou?”

Unfortunately, Feng Qingyou shook her head. “It’s not impossible, but the mark is the Stranger’s innate magic. Generally speaking, it is very difficult to remove.”

Seeing Ye Qing’s disappointed expression, she chuckled. “However, it’s not something to worry about too much. A mark like this normally has a time limit. It can last as long as two months, or as short as three days. Just bear with it for the moment, and it will pass.”

“Fine,” Ye Qing sighed.

That was what he said, but he didn’t plan on being on the defensive. The Annon Sutra should be able to identify the location of Bronze Toad’s kin. If they were outside the commandery, then he supposed he could be a tortoise one time and hide until the mark had passed its course. But if they were inside the commandery, he wouldn’t mind becoming a hero and reuniting Bronze Toad with its family. Families shouldn’t be separated, right?

Yeah, I’ll ask the Annon Sutra when I get home tonight.

“So, Qingyou, do you—” Ye Qing was going to check if Feng Qingyou was free and ask her out on a date or something, but a loud, panicked cry suddenly came from outside.

“What’s going on, Uncle Feng?” Feng Qingyou called out.

The door creaked open, and a decrepit old man with a crooked back stepped in. He answered, “we have a patient, miss, and he looks to be in pretty serious condition.”

Before Feng Qingyou could react, Ye Qing rose to his feet and said, “Let’s go together. Who knows, maybe I can be of some help?”

She did not turn down his offer. Feng Qingyou nodded at him smilingly and walked toward the door.

As Ye Qing passed by the old man, he could not help but glance at him. Uncle Feng looked and felt like an ordinary old man, but Ye Qing knew that it was the opposite. For one, he hadn’t sensed the guy right until the moment he knocked on the door. Two, the inner hall they were currently in was far away enough from the outer hall that he could only hear bits and pieces of the commotion. And yet, Uncle Feng knew exactly what was going on and reported as such. That was all he needed to see to know that Uncle Feng was a lot more powerful than he was.

As if sensing Ye Qing’s gaze, Uncle Feng looked up and shot Ye Qing a yellow tooth smile. Ye Qing smiled back but didn’t say anything.

By the time Ye Qing and Qingyou arrived at the outer hall, the situation was just barely under control. Six young men were holding a rope each and doing everything they could to keep the man they were dragging restrained.

The man didn’t really resemble a man anymore. His limbs were scrawny, but his torso was swollen like a mountain of flesh. His skin was also oozing some sort of smelly, oily liquid from his pores that could only be described as disgusting. His head was misshapen, bald, and inflated not unlike a water balloon that was filled to the brim. It looked like it might explode into a shower of gore at any moment. His eyes were glassy and lifeless like a dead person, his mouth was so huge that it almost stretched from ear to ear, and his teeth were yellowed and unnaturally tiny. Disgusting yellow saliva was also trickling down the corners of his mouth.

“Hehehe…”

“Hahaha…”

“Hihihi…”

The guy was laughing strangely from time to time, but he didn’t seem to be conscious at all. He could not seem to feel the rope squeezing into his flesh either. However, his strength was absolutely monstrous. The slightest movement he made was enough to throw the six men restraining him off balance. No one dared to let go of the rope no matter how exhausted they were though.

Snap!

It was at this moment the rope wrapped around the misshapen man suddenly snapped in half. Then, while leaking yellow saliva from his mouth, he suddenly rushed toward the nearest young man while chuckling,

“Eat… eat… eat…”

The unfortunate young man reacted immediately and jumped out of the way, but the misshapen man was surprisingly fast despite his size. He easily caught up to the young man and grabbed him with his thin, seemingly frail hand.

The young man looked strong, but he might as well be a baby compared to the misshapen man. He was easily lifted into the air and toward the misshapen man’s mouth.

“Aaaahhh! Save me! Someone save me please!”

The young man struggled with all his might but could not break free. The others immediately rushed forward to pull the young man to safety, but it was no use.

Just when it looked like the misshapen man would take a bite out of the young man’s head, a finger suddenly appeared over his wrist and stopped it dead in its tracks.

“Hgggh! Grrrrrr!”

The misshapen man pulled with all his might, but it was like a boulder was sitting on his wrist. He grew more and more frustrated until suddenly, he roared and attempted to bite the owner of the finger.

The finger shifted over to his shoulder, and the misshapen man immediately froze in place not because he didn’t want to move, but because he couldn’t. The finger was pressing down on his shoulder so hard it was like he was carrying a mountain. Try as he might, all he could do was to roar helplessly in place.

“What’s wrong with him?” Ye Qing asked. He was the one keeping the misshapen man pinned, of course.

His senses were telling him that the misshapen man wasn’t a human anymore. He might have been a human in the past, but something happened to him and warped him into this disgusting monstrosity. Forget looking like a human, he didn’t even feel like a human anymore. In exchange, he gained what looked like a Stranger’s appetite and strength.

“We… we’re not sure,” a young man gulped. He shook his head strongly to jolt himself out of his fear and retorted, “I mean, we wouldn’t be here if we knew what was wrong with him!”

Ye Qing: “...” Well, he’s not wrong.

“Do you know what kind of illness ails Deng Qiang, doctor?” Another person asked urgently.

“Er, I’m not the doctor,” Ye Qing replied and looked back at Feng Qingyou. The young woman didn’t respond though. She circled around the misshapen man—Deng Qiang—twice before grabbing his hand. She was going to check his pulse.

“Qingyou?” Ye Qing subconsciously raised his voice. Deng Qiang was covered from head to toe in horrible-smelling fluid, and it was so disgusting that even he used one finger and only one finger to pin him in place. However, Qingyou was putting her whole hand on his wrist.

Isn’t she disgusted by this?

“I’m fine!”

Feng Qingyou shot him a light smile to show that she truly wasn’t bothered by the filth. Then, she returned her attention back to Deng Qiang. She carefully examined his eyelids, his tongue, and his pulse. Next, she pulled out a silver needle and lightly poked him in a few major points. Whatever it was she discovered, it made her frown like she was puzzling out a complex problem.

It was only now the young men realized something and stared at Feng Qingyou. One of them exclaimed in disbelief, “You… You’re the doctor, Miss?”

In their impression, a doctor should be a stern, old-fashioned middle-aged or old man with a long beard. But a girl? Could they really trust her?

“I am the owner of Heavenly Heart Clinic,” Feng Qingyou confirmed before launching into a brief explanation, “About the patient, Deng Qiang shows absolutely no signs that he is still alive. His pupils are dilated and unresponsive, and he doesn’t have a pulse or a heartbeat. Furthermore, the ‘oil’ leaking out of his body is really corpse wax.”

“Corpse wax?!”

Everyone in the outer hall immediately covered their noses and backed away from Deng Qiang. Ye Qing immediately held his breath as well. Frankly, he wanted to get away from the misshapen man just like the others, but Feng Qingyou hadn’t left yet, so how could he?

At least he was using his left hand and wearing the Blue Demon Hand. I’m so sorry, buddy!

Feng Qingyou shot Ye Qing a glance and felt like giggling for some reason, but she controlled herself and continued, “Corpse wax takes form when a body has decomposed so much that the fat is leaking. Therefore, Deng Qiang is dead.”

“He’s dead? B-But then… how is he still moving?” Someone stuttered.

Feng Qingyou replied, “I’m not sure here. Logically speaking, Deng Qiang is already dead. However, something changed him and allowed him to keep some of his bodily functions.”

“Is it a Stranger?” Ye Qing asked instinctively.

She shook her head. “I don’t believe so. I haven’t found any traces that might suggest that he was infested by a Stranger. Also, judging from the rate of decomposition of his muscles and internal organs, the change had been going on for some time. His behavior should have changed a while ago. When did you guys notice that he was acting strange?”

“You’re completely right, lass—I mean, doctor.”

One man looked clearly impressed as he reminisced, “Deng Qiang is an orphan, and he lives alone. He was a kind and hardworking man until over a month ago.”

“At first, Deng Qiang just looked under the weather. He can’t seem to chain more than a few sentences together like his mind was addled, and there was a faint smell that… oh. It was the smell of the corpse wax.”

“Over time, Deng Qiang came to enjoy the indoors more and more. He rarely even went out of his room, much less the house. His appearance grew increasingly bizarre, and he started acting strange like peeping at people through the gap between his door, eating raw meat, laughing like he was crazy and so on…”

The man gulped. The more he thought about the past, the more afraid he became. “Later, Deng Qiang’s behavior became even more troubling. We started hearing strange crunching noises from his house. He started going out once more, but that was during the dead of the night where he would stick his face against our windows and stare at us. He even started biting our livestocks—chickens, ducks, pigs, sheeps and more—to death…”

“A few days ago, Deng Qiang got way worse and started attacking people. He would chase down anyone he saw a-and bite them just like what you saw earlier. A lot of people were hurt by Deng Qiang.”

“Left with no choice, we finally decided to restrain him and bring him here for treatment.”

Feng Qingyou was silent for a moment before she asked, “Is there any chance that any of you may recall whether Deng Qiang had come into contact with anything weird prior to his change?”

The crowd tried to think of something, but a while later they all shook their heads.

“Okay,” Feng Qingyou nodded, “You may leave now.”

“What… What about Deng Qiang?” Someone asked weakly.

She replied, “He’ll be staying in the clinic for the moment.”

“Okay! We’re heading back to Longwind Street then!”

“We leave him in your hands, doctor!”

The young men didn’t even bother asking why she wanted to keep Deng Qiang in the clinic. They just bade their goodbyes and left as quickly as they could. It was because Feng Qingyou’s statement had scared the shit out of them. Forget what Deng Qiang already did, what kind of crazy person would want to bring him back after everything they just heard? Of course they ran away and never looked back.