Chapter 169: Yan Junze's Staple Food
Couldn't stomach anything anymore.
Having already vomited everything out, at the sight of the text message from Zhang Xiaomo, Yan Junze completely lost his appetite.
He hadn't expected that after activating his Fake Spirit Body, he would have to eat very little human food and mainly seek out his own kind of sustenance.
"How the hell am I supposed to know what I'm supposed to eat?"
Yan Junze lay back on the bed, his mother placed a wet towel on his forehead, and then took out a thermometer usually kept at home to take his temperature.
Five minutes later, Li Man took the thermometer and showed it to Yan Daguo.
Then Yan Daguo vigorously shook the thermometer a few times and said bluntly, "The mercury might be broken."
"How much?" Yan Junze asked, lifting his head.
"It hasn't even reached 35 degrees," Yan Daguo frowned and answered.
This type of mercury thermometer generally has a minimum scale of 35 degrees. Now the mercury hadn't even reached the 35-degree mark and was far from the minimum, leading Yan Daguo to believe the thermometer was broken.
"We can't wait; we're going to the hospital now," Li Man suggested.
"It's nothing, Mom," Yan Junze shook his head, "I just haven't rested well these past couple of days. I'll sleep a bit more, and I'll recover by tomorrow."
Just then, there was a knock on the living room door, followed by Zhou Dali's booming voice, "Junze, open up, I'm here to see you."
Yan Daguo went out to open the door.
Seeing it was Yan Daguo, Zhou Dali immediately looked down and gave an embarrassed smile, "Uncle, is Junze in? I came to see him."
As he spoke, he lifted the black plastic bag he was carrying.
"He's feeling a bit unwell and is lying in bed. Go on in," Yan Daguo thought the bag contained nutritional supplements and nodded.
Once inside the bedroom, Li Man also stepped out and closed the bedroom door.
Zhou Dali sat down on the edge of the bed and opened the black plastic bag he had been carrying, taking out five bags of fresh blood.
The bags of blood weren't large, each about the same size as the bagged milk bought for breakfast.
"It's all chicken blood, from chickens killed just a while ago. I froze it in the fridge to prevent it from coagulating into blood clots, so it's still icy," explained Zhou Dali. "What are you planning to do with it?"
"Put it under the bed for now," Yan Junze didn't answer his question, and instead said, "Tomorrow I need you to do something for me. Go to the Spectacular Courtyard Residential Area from where you picked me up and collect a few payments. Here's the address."
As he said this, he took out a piece of paper with an address already written on it from the drawer of his bedside table.
"Remember to bring your ID. I'll call these people in advance and tell them you'll be coming over."
"Sure, no problem." Even though Zhou Dali didn't know what Yan Junze was up to, he was clear-headed when it came to collecting money.
They chatted about going to university next month. Seeing that Yan Junze wasn't in good shape, Zhou Dali didn't stay for long, said he'd take care of the task the next day, and then got up to leave.
Not long after Zhou Dali left, the parents came into the bedroom and urged him to go to the hospital.
After some sweet-talking, Yan Junze finally convinced his parents to leave. Then he locked the bedroom door, took out the bags of fresh blood from under the bed, and randomly picked one.
There were no straws, so he bit open the bag, frowned, and carefully tried sipping a mouthful before slowly swallowing.
It was fishy, but not as bad as he had imagined.
So for the second sip, he took a bit more, swallowed, and then paid close attention to any changes in his body.
Feeling nothing, he ended up finishing off the bag in a few gulps, wiped his mouth clean with a couple of tissues, and then lay back on the bed.
About half an hour later, the anticipated stomach pain or diarrhea didn't materialize; instead, the body aches began to fade away.
Although the fatigue hadn't totally subsided, it had significantly improved. Not only that, but Yan Junze even felt somewhat full.
After a long while, he let out a wry smile. It seemed he had found his main source of sustenance, but why wasn't it bread and milk? Why was it blood?
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Although the sense of fatigue had diminished, his body was still weak. After a moment, he took out the second bag from under the bed, bit it open, and gulped it down quickly, much faster than the first time.
Then he took out the third bag, the fourth bag, and finally, the last one.
In the blink of an eye, he had drunk all five bags of blood.
His strength was rapidly returning, and the feeling of weakness was mostly gone, with only occasional sensations of lethargy.
There were no mirrors in the bedroom.
Yan Junze sat on the bed, took a selfie with his phone, and struck a victory pose, having turned off the beautification and filters in advance.
He looked at the photo, the angle was quite good, and it showed potential for a selfie expert. His cheeks were still a bit pale, but much better than at the beginning.
As a "Semi-spirit," it seemed that drinking animal blood was a lot more effective than drinking fish soup.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Yan Junze's mind went blank for a moment. He hadn't expected his body to end up like this, and there was still a process of acceptance he needed to go through.
He wasn't saying he couldn't eat human food anymore, but he could only consume it in moderation, and his main food...
He turned his head to look at the empty bags thrown into the trash bin and let out a wry smile. Even if he stole animal blood, he needed to figure out how to dispose of the trash properly, or it could raise suspicion from his parents and friends.
He had recovered a lot of energy. Though not fully recharged, Yan Junze didn't want to sleep anymore.
He booted up his computer and copied all the videos from the camcorder and the camera on his chest, watching them carefully.
In the footage, the part where he's carried aloft by Long-tongued Zhenzhen after entering the tunnel had to be deleted, and so did the interaction with the Crawler Monster.
The scene outside the warehouse in Mountain Park, where he was ambushed by a child and then fought back, was also deleted.
After these cuts, Yan Junze couldn't help but both laugh and cry.
The entire video no longer seemed complete, just bits and pieces, as if there was no storyline. It required voice-over or text explanations in order to roughly describe the entire Spirit Exploration process.
But the good news was that the cave had given off a strong sense of mystery, which should do well in terms of horror atmosphere.
After editing, he contacted Tang Zhengyi and sent over the video.
Only then did he start to feel a bit hungry again. Without blood, he could still eat human food, at least enough to stave off hunger in critical moments.
He took the trash can with the discarded blood bags, carried the plastic bag out of the bedroom, opened the door, and threw it into the waste disposal nearby.
He returned home and managed to find some leftovers from dinner in the kitchen.
He didn't dare to eat much, just a little, then went back to his room to lie down. At this point, he felt as though his days were numbered, for he had already lost a lot of blood and definitely hadn't drunk enough animal blood yet.
But under the current circumstances, he could only think of visiting a blood center. He certainly couldn't go around randomly biting people on the streets, right?
Yan Junze felt troubled, took out his cellphone, and took a selfie showing a five-toothed smile, looking at the photo.
At least he hadn't grown zombie teeth.
He didn't know how long he pondered, but eventually, he fell asleep.
Early the next day, Yan Junze called the four families from the Spectacular Courtyard Residential Area. Actually, they already knew the situation had been handled without needing his notice.
Around ten o'clock, Zhou Dali notified Yan Junze that he had received all the money and had confirmed it, but he couldn't leave at the moment because the police and a team of Exorcists had sealed off the entrances and exits of Spectacular Courtyard.
Especially on the Mountain Park side, where police lines had been put up.
After hanging up, Yan Junze had a thought: if the Tricky Silk Boss of the Underground Space were discovered by the Exorcists, he wondered what the outcome would be.