Chapter 36: Horsehair Worms

When Xia Xiaoman clearly saw what was wriggling out of the fish flesh, she recoiled a full step in fright.

Snapping out of it, she immediately rushed to the balcony and frantically washed her hands with rainwater.

Seeing her reaction, Sun Qing’s heart started pounding with unease. She asked anxiously, “What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with the fish?”

Xia Xiaoman was about to answer when she saw the twins still playing in the tubs with the fish. She quickly shouted, “A-Xu! Lingling! Stop playing—there are worms on the fish. Come here and wash your hands immediately!”

The twins were fairly obedient. They responded and ran over to Xia Xiaoman, washing their hands without fuss.

Sun Qing looked confused. “Worms on the fish? What kind of worms?”

“Horsehair worms. What just crawled out of the fish flesh was a horsehair worm.”

“I saw someone back in my hometown once gut a fish that was infested with them. When they split open the belly, there was a dense, squirming mass of them inside.”

Even now, thinking back on that scene made Xia Xiaoman’s scalp tingle. “Horsehair worms can also parasitize human bodies.”

“Sun Qing, I don’t know if high temperatures can kill them, but I strongly suggest you throw all the fish away, just to be safe.”

After hearing there were parasites in the fish, Sun Qing no longer dared to eat them. The thought that horsehair worms could infest people made her hands itch—she even started wondering if she was already infected.

The two of them dumped all the fish from the tubs out of the window. They then washed their hands thoroughly with body wash and soaked them in disinfectant for half a minute before they felt a little more at ease.

“That’s terrifying. There are actually parasites in the water… Should we still go into the water in the future?” The thought of diving into parasite-infested water made Sun Qing’s skin crawl.

Xia Xiaoman thought for a moment. “Let’s avoid going into the water if we can. Try to search for supplies on the surface.”

The recent storms and floods had stirred up everything, but bacteria and parasites in water still needed time to breed. After a month, the water was likely crawling with them. It wasn’t safe to wade anymore.

Luckily, everyone on the 15th floor had enough supplies for the time being. Even if they didn’t go out searching for more, they could still manage.

With the full-fish feast ruined, Sun Qing used the self-heating spicy hot pot Xia Xiaoman brought, added in some sweet potato vermicelli and leftover duck blood, and made a chaotic stew.

The twins weren’t used to spicy food. While shouting “so spicy, so spicy,” they still kept stuffing vermicelli and duck blood into their mouths.

Suddenly, a loud boom! startled Lingling, making her drop her spoonful of duck blood onto the table. A-Xu quickly slurped it up, and it disappeared instantly.

Lingling pouted, “Xiaoman-jie, Gege ate my duck blood!”

Xia Xiaoman grabbed Wen Xu and said to Lingling, “Quick, eat all your brother’s duck blood. Don’t leave him a single piece.”

“Ahhh! Xiaoman-jie, you’re so biased!” Wen Xu squirmed wildly.

“Well, I’m a girl and so is Lingling. Who else would I be biased toward?”

Three childish troublemakers—Sun Qing couldn’t even watch. She walked over to the balcony to check the sky. No thunderclouds… So what had caused that loud noise just now?

She stared for a while but saw nothing unusual, so she returned to continue eating. Just as she sat down again, another thunderous boom exploded through the air.

“What’s going on? Is someone setting off explosives?” Sun Qing asked in confusion.

“I’ll go get the binoculars,” Xia Xiaoman said, releasing Wen Xu and heading back to her apartment. She returned with the binoculars and scanned the neighborhood from the balcony.

Everything in the complex seemed normal at first. Just as she was about to lower the binoculars, four or five rafts suddenly paddled frantically out from Building 13. The people onboard were panicked, like they were being chased by wild dogs.

After seven or eight minutes, a motorized speedboat appeared and started circling the rafts.

After a few rounds, the speedboat stopped. One of the men on board pointed a handgun at the people on the rafts.

Sun Qing saw Xia Xiaoman’s expression grow darker and asked nervously, “Xiaoman, what did you see?”

“Someone from Building 12 is blocking the people from Building 13… and they’re armed with guns.”

As she spoke, a gunshot rang out. A middle-aged man on the first raft was hit in the chest and fell into the water.

Sun Qing’s face turned pale. “Who are these people? Why do they have guns?!”

Xia Xiaoman shook her head. She didn’t know exactly who they were—but clearly, they weren’t good people.

After shooting the leader, the armed group didn’t stop. They forced the rest of the people on the rafts into the water at gunpoint, then beat them with sticks whenever they surfaced.

The speedboat driver tied one man to the back of the boat, then sped around at high speed. As they made a sharp turn, he deliberately swung the man against the wall with a violent flick.

Anyone who could take pleasure in torture like this was clearly beyond reason—monsters, not men.

Sun Qing frowned. “They’re in our complex. Should we move out?”

No matter how tough you are, fists are no match for bullets. With psychos like that around, avoidance was the safest bet.

Xia Xiaoman thought it over. “Let’s wait for the others to get back before we decide.”

Relocating wouldn’t be easy—they had stockpiled too many supplies.

Even moving at night might attract attention. If the people from Building 12 discovered how much they had, they’d almost certainly come to rob them.

Whether they stayed or left, they needed to prepare thoroughly.

…

Wen Jianfeng’s group returned after 4 p.m. Besides firewood and wild vegetables, they had also brought back dozens of bamboo shoots as thick as bowls.

After hauling everything upstairs, Xiao Zheyu said excitedly, “Uncle Wen said he knows how to make pickled bamboo shoots. Once they’re ready, he’ll cook sour bamboo duck for us.”

“You guys caught any fish? Show me. We can use the sour bamboo for sliced fish dishes too.”

Sun Qing’s expression fell. “Don’t bring it up. The fish were full of horsehair worms—totally inedible. I spent all morning fishing, only to release them all.”

“Horsehair worms? You mean parasites? Are they in the water too?”

“Most likely. We’ll have to be careful going forward. Best not to go into the water unless we have to.”

Xiao Zheyu paled. “What?! I went into the water today! I’m doomed, I probably got parasites!”

Panicking himself into a frenzy, he turned ghostly pale. “I need a shower—right now! I’ll boil some rainwater and kill them all!”

He immediately ran to fetch rainwater, boiled it, and rummaged through their stash for deworming meds. He took one pill, then another, just to be sure.

Xia Xiaoman ignored the fool and went to Wen Jianfeng. She told him everything about the armed group from Building 12 and how they executed and tortured people from Building 13.

“We have two choices now. One, we start moving supplies out of the complex little by little under cover of darkness. Or two, we stay and reinforce our floor’s defenses. Which do you choose?”