On December 3rd, Su Qi came across a news article on the DC browser.
"Shocking! Ancient creature remains hidden in giant iceberg, and on it..."
The same familiar clickbait intro, the same familiar unfinished headline.
But for some reason, Su Qi couldn't resist the urge to click on it!
Upon clicking into the news, Su Qi quickly saw the large iceberg that had previously sunk in the Pacific Ocean.
Above was a brief description detailing the iceberg's trajectory after separating from the Arctic. Su Qi was familiar with this news.
However, as she scrolled down, Su Qi discovered there was actually a follow-up this time.
The follow-up was an image of a massive shipyard salvaging a giant skeleton.
According to the news speculation, this was the remains of some ancient creature from prehistoric times.
After analyzing the bones and determining it was a male carnivorous quadruped, the most crucial information in the post appeared, which was also the main content the post aimed to describe.
According to relevant experts' investigations, there were traces of an ancient virus on the bones of this prehistoric creature.
It's worth noting that these bones were previously preserved within the giant iceberg.
With the iceberg melting and triggering a massive cold front, doesn't this imply that the recent cold wave carried this ancient virus?
Thinking of this, Su Qi immediately had an ominous premonition.
Because three of her wives had caught colds, and it seemed that after being treated once, the symptoms would recur after a few days.
Considering the recent widespread nature of the flu, doesn't this suggest that this ancient virus is the culprit behind the flu outbreak?
At this moment, Su Qi wanted to hear what speculations were in the comments section below.
However, after browsing the entire webpage and opening the comments section, Su Qi was surprised to find that people had widely accepted this viewpoint.
Many people also shared new news articles. Looking at the headlines one by one, Su Qi felt increasingly heavy-hearted.
"Ten Things to Do to Guard Against the Flu Virus!"
"Nearly a Thousand People Infected with Flu in XXX City"
"Recurring Flu Symptoms: A Warning Sign, Seek Medical Attention Quickly"
Seeing one piece of flu-related news after another, Su Qi's heart sank further.
She quickly closed the DC browser and opened the TikTok app on her phone to verify the truth again.
As Su City is located in a subtropical monsoon climate zone, this cold wave perfectly covered the area.
Therefore, Su Qi, who was in Su City, found that all the recommended videos on TikTok were about various general knowledge related to the "ancient virus".
Su Qi scrolled through ten videos, all about the 'ancient virus', which made her heart sink.
Because Su Qi, who usually chatted with her little wife, was quite familiar with this flu—its recurrent nature and difficulty to cure completely. However, she hadn't expected this.
After watching many short videos analyzing experts' opinions, Su Qi realized that this ancient virus was far more complex than she had imagined.
Due to the relatively advanced medical conditions in our country, many people received strong and effective suppression in the early stages of flu infection.
This also led to the second characteristic of the ancient virus not manifesting.
However, the subtropical monsoon climate covers a vast area.
In regions with less developed medical care, many people didn't receive effective flu suppression in the early stages, allowing the second characteristic of the ancient virus to manifest.
Patients showing symptoms typically experienced persistent dehydration and high fever that wouldn't subside. In severe cases, the invasion of the ancient virus could cause irreversible damage to the lungs and respiratory system.
Many experts in other regions, based on local patient conditions, predicted possible symptoms:
This ancient virus might initially just attach to the human body, and then at a certain stage, appear in an explosive form. This was one theory.
However, although every video sounded terrifying, from the current perspective, the second characteristic of the ancient virus hadn't manifested in our country yet. The bloggers posting these videos firstly wanted to urge flu patients to seek medical attention promptly and avoid being overconfident.
As for the second and most important point, it was to avoid excessive crowd contact, after all, the characteristics of the ancient virus are similar to the flu, it is contagious, and cross-infection should be avoided.
While watching these videos, Su Qi also opened the comments section.
At this time, Su Qi found that people's focus wasn't entirely on the ancient virus, but more on the term "greenhouse effect".
Seeing one person after another in the comments section calling for energy conservation and emission reduction, Su Qi felt that perhaps the arrival of this flu was Earth's way of sounding an alarm bell for humanity.
After browsing the news and short videos, and confirming the existence of the ancient virus, Su Qi quickly dialed her wife Bai Miao's number.
After all, her wife Bai Miao had shown symptoms of headache and fever on the second morning after the cold wave hit.
Moreover, even in recent weeks, the flu symptoms hadn't completely subsided.
To the extent that Bai Miao, during her recent Tuesday night visits, always wore a thick mask.
Although Su Qi had the Auspicious Dragon Pendant and wasn't afraid of the flu, Bai Miao was unaware of this, so during each recent visit, she would always sneak away after lulling Su Qi to sleep.
Initially, Su Qi thought it was just because her wife Bai Miao was busy with work, which led to the recurring flu virus.
But now, after seeing the recent news and TikTok videos, Su Qi could almost confirm that her wife Bai Miao had indeed been infected.
Su Qi called her Sister Bai Miao. The phone rang for 60 seconds before being forcibly disconnected.
This gave Su Qi an uneasy feeling. She then made several more calls.
On the 7th call, just as Su Qi was about to hang up and call Bai Miao's mother, Aunt Ning Yu, to inquire about the situation, the call was finally answered.
At this moment, Bai Miao was sleeping in her own little nest in the villa area.
Today, she hadn't gone to work for the first time in a while.
Because when she woke up early in the morning, she found her eyelids extremely heavy and her head dizzy.
Actually, this situation had been occurring frequently lately.
But Bai Miao, who usually exercised regularly and had a good constitution, hadn't paid much attention to it, just assuming she was tired.
It was only this morning when she woke up that she finally felt it was a bit serious.
After taking medicine, she had been lying in her bed all along. Normally, Bai Miao was a light sleeper, and although she now wore the sleep bracelet Su Qi had given her, the fact that it took seven consecutive calls to wake her up was enough to show how deeply she was sleeping.
After answering the phone, although Bai Miao tried her best to tell Su Qi that nothing was wrong, how could Su Qi, who had all sorts of intimate relationships with her, not know she was putting on a brave face?
Ten minutes later, after hanging up the phone, Su Qi thought for a moment and made separate calls to her wives Zijin and Xiao Xiaoxiao.
Because at this point, Su Qi, having already read the fourth book of the Respiratory and Lung Physiology Secret, could 100% confirm based on her Sister Bai Miao's description that she had indeed been infected. This was a fact.