The Great Worm Lich

“Yes!” The emergency doctor was stunned for a moment before waving his hand to motion the other medical personnel nearby to send Zhang Lisheng and the three others into the ambulance. He then whispered solemnly to the middle-aged officer after lowering his voice, “Mr. Major, you can tell that his current mental state is not stable with how he’s hugging that weird strange figure so tightly. By asking such a question in front of him, if it causes the patient to…”

“I’m sorry, doctor. I’ll head to the ship.” Now that he had obtained the answer he was looking for, the middle-aged officer smiled apologetically before turning around to hurriedly leave.

At this moment, the ambulance that was carrying Zhang Lisheng and the others had already sped out of New York Harbor. Very soon, it sent the young man to the Presbyterian Hospital.

As one of the best general hospitals in New York, the Presbyterian Hospital’s emergency room was already overcrowded. After carrying out a few simple medical examinations, the doctors who were so busy that they looked extremely haggard, finished their medical diagnosis on Zhang Lisheng. They concluded that he was completely healthy other than having some neurosensory damage and being mentally anxious.

Then, after having an IV drip injected, the young man was pushed into the observation ward by the nurse. An hour later, he saw Lili and Lavin who rushed to the hospital after hearing the news.

Even though a lot of things happened on the Elizabeth Holiday, counting the time, Zhang Lisheng had not been away for 40 hours yet. However, Lili had been crying so much that her eyes swelled up to the point that it looked like nectarines.

However, after seeing that her son was safe and sound, his mother appeared to be tough and did not even so much as shed a tear. Instead, she consoled Zhang Lisheng who was on the bed. “The doctor said that you’re alright! You can go back after staying here for a day of observation. Don’t think too much, baby. The most important thing you should do now is to take a good rest. I’ll always be with you so just sleep well.”

By right, his mother’s attitude should be just right for Zhang Lisheng who was having a lot of suspicions. However, due to the reason that it was just too out of the ordinary, the young man could not help but ask as he wanted to know more, “Mother, what’s wrong with you? Why didn’t you ask me what happened yesterday in the sea?”

“I don’t want to know anything, baby. What’s important now is that you’re safe and sound. Don’t think too much. The most important thing for you right now is to relax.”

“Yes, Lisheng. Your mum will apply for a leave of absence during this period of time so you can rest properly,” Lavin chimed in.

Zhang Lisheng frowned as he lied on the hospital bed. Without asking any more questions, he gradually fell asleep.

After staying for 24 hours in the hospital without anything unusual happening, he went to see the doctor once again in accordance to the procedure.

After turning Zhang Lisheng’s eyelids over to observe his pupillary reaction, a man with a wrinkled face, who looked like he was almost 60 years old, patted the young man’s shoulder and said, “Congratulations, young man. Looks like you’re completely fine now! However, you still need to take your medicine continuously for two weeks. It’s better if you don’t use too much of your brain and just live at ease during this period. I’ll prescribe the medicine for you and then give you a two-week sick leave as an early summer vacation for you. Don’t you feel excited that you want to thank me after hearing this news?”

“But doctor, I’d have to undergo my last major exam for the tenth grade after this early summer vacation ends. For this reason, it’s not that exciting for me.”

“Well, you have a point. I sympathize with you, boy. But remember, you must not go to school in these next two weeks. I’ll tell your parents about this, is anybody here to pick you up?”

“My mother is outside the door.”

“Alright, go out and wait, child. By the way, tell your mother to come in.”

“Doctor, can you tell me what sickness did I get?”

“You’re very healthy but it’s just that you’ve inhaled some kind of hallucinogenic gas during the shipwreck, causing some brain poisoning. However, don’t worry as the situation is not very serious. As long as you do as I say, I promise that it won’t leave any side effects in the future.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Zhang Lisheng stood up from the chair absorbed in his thoughts before walking out of the doctor’s office.

Seeing his son coming out, Lili quickly went up to him. “Are you fine now, baby?”

“I’m fine now, mum. The doctor said that I’ll be discharged immediately but I can’t go to the school for the next two weeks and I must continue taking medicine. Oh yeah, he told you to go in to see him.”

Lili was shocked. “Then go sit down and wait for me, baby,” Hastily, she opened the door and ran into the doctor’s office.

After a few minutes, Lili walked out of the office with an obviously relaxed expression. After bringing Zhang Lisheng to pick up the medicine, they went to the supermarket to buy a lot of fresh ingredients before driving back home.

Other than the male head of the household who was working overtime, everyone else was present in the house. When they saw Zhang Lisheng, they gave him warm hugs and greetings. “Hey, Lisheng. Welcome home! Looks like your enviable birthday party this time did not go that smoothly!”

“Shut up, Randy! Stop mentioning those kinds of things anymore! Lisheng, you look good and full of spirit! That’s right! I’ve already fed your beetles on time these past two days. They are healthy as well! You can go look at them later.”

“Welcome back, dear brother…”

When the kids comforted the brother who had gone through a terrible shipwreck in the living room, Lili went to prepare for lunch in the kitchen. The oil that was gradually being heated up covered a piece of thick fat rib as it sizzled nicely. After about ten minutes or so, she grilled four pieces of steak and made two colorful vegetable salads with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and apples.

“Kids, stop chatting and come eat!” Zhang Lisheng and his siblings flocked into the dining room and Lili passed a plate of lunch to each of them. Everyone else was having steak except for Zhang Lisheng who was having a vegetarian salad.

“Baby, the doctor said that you must eat more vegetarian food these days. From today onwards, I’ll accompany you to eat vegetable salad for the next two weeks.”

“Auntie Lili, I also want to eat vegetable salad.”

“Riley dear. You’re already skinny. If you want to eat vegetarian food, wait till you’re 100 pounds first,” Lili replied before picking up a few pieces of lettuce and tomatoes with the dining fork into her mouth.

After the lunch, in which Zhang Lisheng filled his stomach with tasteless leaves and tomatoes, he yawned. “Mum, I didn’t get to sleep well on the hospital bed yesterday…”

“Go sleep then if you’re sleepy, baby. You need more rest now but don’t forget to take your medicine before going to bed.”

“Sure.” Zhang Lisheng nodded before pretending to run into the living room to take the medicine from Lili’s bag and walked up to the second floor.

After returning to his own room, he commanded the Mountoad to leap out of his bed and conveniently unscrewed the medicine bottle to take out two pills for it to eat. Then, he looked at the two color-changing beetles who were alive and kicking, flying inside the feeder he raised them in before turning his computer on.

The screen flashed for a while and the program icons came into the display. Zhang Lisheng opened the network and entered the keywords “New York Harbor, Elizabeth Holiday and shipwreck” to start his search. In an instant, countless amount of information entered his field of vision in rows.

“The New York Harbor’s Birthday Party Cruise mysteriously disappeared offshore. It turned out that it had a collision with the Navy’s rescue vessel…”

“Several dozens of students from a famous New York high school were killed. Hundreds of people suffered from heavy brain damage due to the invasive “X Gas”. An official from the US Maritime Administration, on the other hand, stated that it was lucky that the shipwreck this time could result in such an ending…”

“Coast Guard’s St. Mary rescued the Elizabeth Holiday cruise from the shipwreck. Due to the leakage of the mysterious “X Gas”, the area where the accident took place had been sealed tightly by the Navy…”

Taking in ten lines of this information in one glance, Zhang Lisheng opened the Associated Press News that should be the most authorized news in the US —

“The Associated Press, 3rd of June, The Ocean Shipping Company’s missing cruise Elizabeth Holiday has been rescued and towed by Coast Guard’s St. Mary two days ago. According to personnel of the Navy, the reason for the disappearance of the cruise ship was caused by a collision with the Navy’s vessel that was carrying the highly volatile anesthetic ‘X’ gas. A Coast Guard’s spokesperson has confirmed that a total of 189 people were killed and 35 people were seriously injured during the shipwreck, in which the New York District Attorney Auppes stated that there is evidence pointing towards the main reason for the shipwreck this time was that because the Elizabeth Holiday’s Captain Fjodna Nightingale has diverged from the sailing course. He is heavily responsible for the accident this time…”

In the news about Elizabeth Holiday’s shipwreck on the internet, not a word of the horrific experience the cruise had experienced in another world was mentioned at all. Even though some news websites that were accustomed to free speech felt that the government must have concealed a lot of the truth, the fabricated story was so bizarre that even Zhang Lisheng also found that it was basically nonsense when he saw it.

“The memory of everyone onboard about the other world has been erased! The reason I’m okay must be because my consciousness cannot be deleted after I’ve become a wizard. However, is there even such a sophisticated technology on Earth? Don’t tell me that it’s group hypnotism… No matter what method is used to erase the memory of the people on board, only the government of the United States can do things to such an extent. All of this must have been done with the purpose of covering up the existence of the other world…” The young man muttered to himself as he turned off his computer.

“In that case, there may be some intelligence personnel who are continuing to monitor us, the shipwreck survivors, for a period of time to see what the effects are of having our memories deleted. Looks like I must behave myself dutifully twice as much in these next two weeks…”

Thanks to some of the sci-fi movies that had similar content, with the information collected online, Zhang Lisheng managed to piece the last piece of the puzzle together and did not have to spend much effort before getting straight towards the truth of the incident.

In the next few days, he did indeed carry out what he had said beforehand. He just spent his entire day sleeping at home. He did not go to Mutteslow to work, nor take any initiative to contact any friend, as though he was suffering from a memory loss and was feeling lethargic.

This routine continued until the tenth day, which the engineering manager in charge of the expansion of the slaughterhouse took the initiative to contact Zhang Lisheng to tell him that the first phase of the slaughterhouse had been completed. After the pre-ordered slaughtering machine had been transported into the factory by the dealer, the young man had no choice but to call Tina.

The two of them greeted each other in apparent awkwardness and Zhang Lisheng was shocked to find that she had actually gone to Hawaii for a holiday.

“I’m sorry, Lisheng, I really can’t go back to New York. Besides, I don’t know how to help you even if I go back. I can’t remember a lot of things and the doctor said that the most important thing before I go to college in a few months time later is to breathe in some more fresh air and keep myself happy… Hahaha… Alice! My doctor already said that I’m not allowed to drink! It’s my turn again? W-Wait till I finish this call first…”

“Have a good vacation, Tina. Goodbye!” Zhang Lisheng could faintly hear a burst of laughter from young men and women from the other side of the phone. After being dumbstruck for a moment, he hung up the phone.