Chapter 86: Mystifying

The mosquito, under Qin Ming's control, flew to where it was meant to go.

A glint of surprise flashed in Liu Yueyue's eyes as she instantly realized who the nurse had been referring to as "little brother."

"Qin Ming, how did you get here?"

"What's this?"

Qin Ming tossed a bag of adult diapers onto the bedside table, "These are adult diapers, but I reckon you don't need them anymore."

Adult diapers?

Liu Yueyue was momentarily stunned before feeling a strong urge to urinate. Her cheeks flushed, and she extended her long, fair legs from beneath her skirt and scurried into the hospital room's restroom with her legs tightly pressed together.

Rustling sounds could be heard, and two minutes later, she emerged from the restroom, her complexion back to normal.

"Why did you suddenly faint?"

Liu Yueyue began to ponder:

"I don't know why, but recently my head sometimes feels dizzy, could it be a bit of hypoglycemia?"

"When did it start?"

She furrowed her brows, "I'm not sure exactly which day, but it seems to have started after I left my mom's workplace that day..."

As Qin Ming gathered information, chatted, the nanocells carried by the mosquito entered Liu Yueyue's bloodstream and traveled to her nervous system.

After the nanocells' phagocytic probe, he discovered that the pathogen was indeed the prion virus, and not an ordinary one at that.

This variant of the prion virus appeared to have undergone a mutation, with a more complex and intricate protein structure, and Qin Ming also spotted traces of artificial modification.

Based on human knowledge of the proteome, he suspected that such a prion virus was likely man-made because the chance of it occurring naturally was far too small.

With this in mind, he extended his telekinesis all over the hospital. After a search, he found that most of the fainting people were affiliated with the Nanocenter.

The Nanocenter, prion virus, Trisolarans, ETO?

Qin Ming naturally arrived at a conclusion: The dark hand behind the poisoning was likely the Adventists led by Evans, such as Pan Han, from the European Division of the Adventist faction. They had once plotted an antibiotic misuse incident that, unfortunately, was thwarted by mankind.

Liu Yueyue and the others were likely collateral damage.

Only they would have such a motive, for the sake of their lord's will.

The ETO had yet to suffer a devastating blow and was in its prime.

Qin Ming had no doubt that ETO had top-tier virologists or biologists; after all, even the Wallbreaker's wife in the original story was a Wallbreaker herself.

But to improve the prion virus was clearly beyond the current bio-tech capabilities of mankind.

Could it be that, to eliminate the nascent nanotechnology, the Trisolarans had not yet given up on ETO and were still transferring technology to them?

A trace of confusion crept into Qin Ming's mind.

This wasn't entirely impossible, considering the original story's genic missiles specially designed to kill Logic, such conceptual bioweapons were very likely technology transferred to ETO by the Trisolarans.

Or were there other unexpected developments?

In the original plot, the Trisolarans, fearing humanity's unique deceptive thinking, had already cut off contact with Evans, and for fear of humans, but now it seemed things were not so straightforward.

Plans cannot keep pace with changes.

Qin Ming had initially planned to wait for the guqin plan to end before starting to get involved on a large scale. But based on the current situation, it seemed necessary to scrap the original plan.

He began to think about what his next move should be.

Who knows if the guqin plan will still succeed? If it fails, like when defending against the Three-Body problem, with a five-figure number of ETO rebels, plus Sophon's assistance, or if the Trisolarans suddenly lose reason and transfer high technology, it could develop and grow rapidly like cancer cells.

If human civilization were likened to the human body, then ETO would be the cancer cells, a foreign force born from humanity itself.

No one knows what other tricks ETO might pull, such as releasing the prion virus everywhere.

The improved prion virus is extremely lethal. If it were massively introduced into the water supply plants, conventional treatment processes would be completely ineffective. Hypochlorous acid couldn't destroy its structure, and boiling would be useless. The result would be that anyone who drank the water would be infected.

According to what Qin Ming knew, during the incubation period of the improved prion virus, apart from initial dizziness and headaches, there would be no other symptoms; fainting signified the onset of disease, and once the disease manifested, it spelled certain death. It was an unsolvable killer disease.

Modern medicine was useless against it, yet it was no match for nanocells; the prion virus in her body had already been completely eradicated.

Liu Yueyue had no idea that she had just skirted the brink of death. She stood up and jumped a little:

"I don't think there's anything wrong with me."

"How about we go home? I don't like staying in hospitals."

Indeed, the hospital was of no use, whether it was just now or now. Qin Ming nodded, and after helping her complete the discharge procedures, they both went home together.

"You can't get through to your parents' phones? Aren't you worried about them?"

When Qin Ming entered, he found it strange. He had been there so many times but had never once seen her father.

Could it be a single-parent family?

Liu Yueyue had not the slightest awareness as a girl; lying on the sofa, she yawned:

"My dad is in the navy; I barely see him a few times a year, and the phone is just for show. He has no signal out at sea."

"Mom has been very busy lately and often forgets to take things. Perhaps she forgot to bring her phone."

Clearly, Chen Fang had already been struck. The Nanocenter should be completely wiped out by now, though many people were still in the incubation period.

Qin Ming asked again:

"Have you been playing the Three-Body game recently?"

Upon hearing this question, Liu Yueyue sat up, her expression changing and clenching her teeth as if she had been conned.

"Stop it. Since I bought it, I've only played a little over a hundred worlds."

"I was going to play this morning, but the server said it was shutting down! Oh, and there's a message, 'Trisolaran Organization meeting on Wednesday!'"

"I'm going to ask them for a refund! I can't let my tens of thousands in New Year's money go to waste!"

"I must get a refund!"

The girl in front of him was furious, and Qin Ming could understand her feelings right now.

It was like an expensive online game that suddenly tells you it's shutting down after you've only played for a short while, and the equipment will soon be rendered useless, meaning a waste of both energy and money.

The V-suit could only be used to play Three-Body; the device was bound to the game. This technology, clearly derived from the Trisolarans, was also beyond its time.

On the surface, Qin Ming remained calm, but inside he felt a sense of events spiraling beyond prediction.

The timing didn't add up; it was too fast. It had only been a few days since Wang Miao joined the Frontiers of Science, and now the Redemptionist faction of the ETO was about to be eradicated by the military?

In the original storyline, that meeting was a trap where humanity captured Ye Wenjie, the Commander of Earth's Rebels. They learned of the existence of the Second Red Shore Base and the remaining vitally important 28g data. Then came the clever Da Shi with his zither plan, wiping out most of the Adventists.

Internally, ETO was not united; factions included both the Redemptionists and the Adventists, two opposing sides with different ideologies. One side wished to destroy humanity with Trisolaran civilization, while the other was filled with illusions about Trisolaran civilization, hoping to solve the three-body problem, save the Trisolaran civilization, indirectly save Earth, and gain advanced knowledge from the Trisolarans.

The two factions were equally strong within the organization, with the Redemptionists being slightly more powerful; anti-human elements were always the minority.

Their armed forces had developed to the point of open conflict. Ye Wenjie used her prestige to try to heal the rift within the organization, but to little avail.

First was the prion virus weapon from Evans's Adventist group, now a sudden meeting called by the Redemptionists. What exactly was happening?

In front of Qin Ming, the once clear vision of the future was now obscured by a layer of fog, becoming elusive and unpredictable.