Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Nyoi-Bo Studio

  The same thing happened everywhere. Wang Yao had found in the other villagers in the county, especially those isolated ones, the empty nest phenomenon was more common. More than half of the houses in those villages were empty. Compared to those villagers, Nanshan was not too bad.

  “Maybe in the next 10 to 20 years, people from those big cities will want to move to countryside,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

  Compared to living in the city, living in the countryside had its advantages. First, the environment in the countryside was better. The air was fresher, and there was less pollution. Second, the vegetables people ate in the countryside were mostly from their own backyard. Therefore, people living in the countryside had more chances to access healthy food.

  In fact, a lot of people from the big cities nowadays chose to settle in smaller cities, which were less polluted and more suitable to live in. Haiqu was one of those smaller cities. A lot of people from Beijing had purchased a property in Haiqu. They came to Haiqu to escape the heat every summer.

  These things happened as time changed. It was not a bad thing for a city to have a smaller population. At least, Wang Yao didn’t think it was a bad thing.

  “Dad, I think you should smoke less,” Wang Yao said.

  He gave each of his parents a massage after dinner. When he was massaging his father, he noticed Wang Fenghua was a bit short of breath. He took a look at his father, who was generally fine, but shouldn’t smoke so many cigarettes every day. He didn’t want his father to quit smoking completely, since he knew smoking was his father’s biggest hobby. Wang Fenghua could live without alcohol but not cigarettes.

  “OK,” Wang Fenghua said. He had been smoking a lot lately.

  It was very quiet at night in the village. Wang Yao walked alone on the concrete road. He then went up to the hills in the distance. Soon, the light of his cottage on Nanshan Hill was turned on.

  Baa! A sheep was baaing in the midnight. It was actually an usual thing. People who had sheep in their household would find that sheep were timid animals, especially at night. They barely made any sound. Sheep were the easiest to steal. However, this sheep was loud at night.

  “Hey!” The hostess of the house poked her husband, who was sleeping.

  “What?” her husband asked.

  “The sheep was baaing just now. Can you go out to take a look?” she asked.

  “Really? How come I didn’t hear anything?” Her husband sat up and rubbed his eyes. He intently listened but didn’t hear anything.

  Both of them listened but neither of them heard anything.

  “Are you sure you were not dreaming?” the husband asked.

  “I really heard a sheep baaing just now. Just go and take a look,” his wife said.

  “OK, OK. I’ll go out to take a look.” As his wife insisted, the man put on a jacket and went out with a torch. He flashed the torch at the sheep-pen. He didn’t find any sheep missing or anything wrong. Then, he walked around the sheep-pen to make sure everything was alright before returning to the house.

  “Is everything alright?” his wife asked.

  “Yes, you must have misheard something. Let’s go back to sleep,” her husband said.

  The woman looked through the window. She was sure she heard something.

  The next morning, a sheep died in the sheep-pen. The woman found the dead sheep on her way to the toilet.

  “Oh my god!” the woman shouted.

  A sheep was worth several hundreds of yuan. Plus, it was a female sheep, which could breed more sheep.

  The woman’s husband didn’t say anything. He had a close look at the dead sheep and patted its belly. Something was not right.

  “I need to cut it open,” the man said.

  Most of the villagers didn’t know how to butcher a sheep. It was not an easy job to butcher a pig or a sheep. One couldn’t just simply stab the animal. It was a job requiring skills. Therefore, the man asked a villager who knew how to butcher a sheep to do the job.

  “Holy sh*t!” the butcher shouted. “What the hell is this?”


  After the sheep had been cut open, they found a large number of black spots inside the sheep’s stomach. Those black spots were moving, like bugs moving on rotten meat. It really scared them.

  Bugs! Everyone’s face went pale. They shivered with horror. The scene was absolutely terrifying.

  The bugs had been gobbling up organs inside the sheep. All the organs had been damaged, and these bugs were creeping around.

  “Burn it!” one of the villagers shouted.

  Someone fetched the gas immediately to light the sheep up. The sheep was on fire and releasing and unpleasant odor and crackling sound.

  “Why are there bugs inside the sheep?” the owner of the sheep asked.

  Those who witnessed the horrible scene were all shocked and worried.

  “Fengmin, what did you feed your sheep?” a villager asked.

  “Nothing unusual.” Wang Fengmin’s face was pale. He was still in shock.

  He was concerned that the same thing could happen to his other sheep. What concerned him more was whether the same thing would happen to his family. Suddenly he ran toward his house like a maniac.

  “What’s wrong with you? Have you sold the sheep?” his wife grumpily asked. “You still have blood on your hand.”


  “Where is Haoxiang?” Wang Fengmin asked anxiously.

  “In the room, why?” his wife asked.

  Wang Fengmin rushed into the room and found his son playing blocks happily.

  “Hi, Dad,” Haoxiang said.

  “Come on, let’s go to see a doctor.” Wang Fengmin carried Haoxiang and walked toward the door.

  “What are you doing? It’s so cold outside!” His wife came into the room. She was bewildered by her husband’s behavior.

  “Put his clothes on. Let’s go see Yao,” Wang Fengmin said.

  “What’s wrong?” his wife asked.

  “The dead sheep was filled with black bugs. It was disgusting!” When mentioning the bugs, he shivered again.

  “Bugs? Where are the bugs from?” His wife’s face changed.

  “How am I supposed to know? What if the bugs went into your body?” Wang Fengmin asked.

  This was what concerned him most. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if his stomach was full of black bugs.

  “OK, let’s go!” His wife helped Haoxiang put on the clothes. Then, they went to Wang Yao’s clinic all together.

  Wang Yao hadn’t been in the clinic for long. He heard people coming into the clinic and banging the door. He frowned. Then, he saw Wang Fengmin, his wife, and their son.

  “Hello, Uncle, Auntie,” Wang Yao said.

  “Yao, please take a look at Haoxiang to see if there are any bugs inside him,” Wang Fengmin anxiously said.

  “Bugs?” Wang Yao asked with surprise. “What bugs?”


  “Please take a look at him,” Wang Fengmin said.

  Wang Yao immediately took a look at Haoxiang, who was about 6 years old.

  The bugs have invaded into the villagers’ bodies?

  He didn’t find any parasites inside Haoxiang’s body. Haoxiang was healthy.

  “He’s fine,” Wang Yao said.

  “That’s great!” Wang Fengmin breathed a big sigh of relief.

  “Can you also take a look at me and my wife?” Wang Fengmin asked

  “Sure,” Wang Yao said.

  Wang Yao took a look at Wang Fengmin and his wife without asking what had happened.

  “There is no parasites inside you or your wife’s body. However, you have stones in your kidney. Be aware of your lifestyle,” Wang Yao said.

  “What? Stones?” Wang Fengmin asked.

  “Yes, kidney stones,” Wang Yao said. “It’s not serious at this stage. You need to drink a lot of water and exercise to get the stones out of your body. Try not to drink too much alcohol or eat too much meat.” Kidney stones were most likely caused by poor lifestyle. “Now, tell me why you think there are bugs in your body.”


  “Well, it’s a long story!” Wang Fengmin told Wang Yao what had happened in the morning.

  Poisonous insects! Wang Yao immediately knew Wang Fengmin was talking about the poisonous insects left behind by Huang Zhicheng. Damn!

  What Wang Yao had been worried about had happened. Those poisonous insects were reproducing, and the speed of multiplication was rapid. It was horrible. As for what Wang Fengmin and his wife had been concerned, what if those poisonous insects had invaded a human body?

  “Uncle, I’ll take a look at your house.” Wang Yao was worried.

  “OK,” Wang Fengmin said.

  Wang Yao went to Wang Fengmin’s house to check his sheep.

  “Yao, you know how to treat animals as well?” Wang Fengmin asked curiously. He had heard from the other villagers that Wang Yao was a good doctor, but he didn’t know Wang Yao was also a vet.

  Of course, Wang Yao was not a vet. However, he had some idea of an animal’s body structure since he tested herbs on San Xian from time to time. In addition, there was not much difference between treating an animal and treating a human being, let alone that animals were equal to human being in terms of rights.