Chapter Eleven: Insects

At that moment, the once proud Eagle of the Steppe was already no different from a walking corpse. When Batu saw us enter, his bloodshot eyes glared at us as if possessed, staring intensely without blinking. His crimson gaze made me deeply uneasy. I had the unsettling sense that, to him, we were no different from the dead cat in his hands—simply something edible.

Fear and astonishment overwhelmed me; I completely lost my composure and forgot the squad leader’s instructions. The old squad leader, however, was far calmer in the face of this sudden crisis. Suddenly, before I even realized what was happening, he darted forward like a bolt of lightning! By the time I gathered my wits, he had already pinned the frenzied Batu solidly to the hospital bed.

I swear, that was the only time I ever saw the squad leader truly unleash his strength—though to this day, I never quite understood how he moved so swiftly. There is but one word to describe his technique: fast!

Before I could catch my breath, the squad leader barked, “What are you staring at? Get the water, now!”

His words were like a gavel, snapping me out of my daze. With trembling hands and barely suppressed terror, I forced the bowl of mustard water between Batu’s lips. The pungent scent filled the air, nearly making me retch. Batu struggled fiercely, and it took both the squad leader and me a long while to get even half the bowl of ginger water down his throat.

Afterwards, Batu reacted much like Xian Hongye had—vomiting pale, blood-tinged water repeatedly, his body gradually calming. Only when the young Mongolian had stabilized did the squad leader and I finally let him go, both of us breathless.

“You ate something you shouldn’t have, didn’t you? Raw meat?!” the squad leader demanded at once.

Once Batu was fully himself, he slowly recounted the events of that day when he’d encountered the wild boar in the back hills. It turned out, he had only gone up the mountain intending to dig up some bamboo shoots as a treat. But soon after cresting a ridge, he came face-to-face with a massive wild boar, rooting beneath the bamboo.

According to Batu, the distance between him and the boar was less than ten meters. The beast was huge—taller than a man, with glossy black skin, fat and formidable, and eyes as red as blood, enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

A wild boar of such size was not a creature any man could tackle alone. Though Batu was brave, he knew his limits and immediately intended to retreat quietly. But just as he was preparing to slip away, the boar spotted him.

He watched as the boar began advancing toward him, each heavy step making the ground tremble. Then, unexpectedly, the boar did something Batu could never have imagined—instead of attacking, it suddenly collapsed on its forelegs and knelt before him!

The young Mongolian was stunned. The wild boar seemed to submit, kneeling and whimpering as if pleading for mercy or asking for a favor. Batu’s fear gave way to curiosity as he circled the animal cautiously, even picking up a stone to testingly rap it on the head.

The boar barely moved, simply drooling and fixing him with those red eyes, still kneeling. Recognizing the boar’s abnormal state, Batu realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He decided to kill the beast—partly for the feast, partly to return a favor to our mess hall.

So, mustering his courage, he drew his Mongolian knife and dealt a fatal blow. Even so, the boar, with its immense strength, thrashed violently in its death throes, leaving Batu with several injuries and hard-earned lessons.

He first cut off the best meat from the boar’s neck to bring to the mess hall as a token of goodwill, not expecting my criticism. Because of my reaction, his hopes of sharing the wild boar with his comrades were dashed. In the end, he enjoyed the prime cut alone, while the rest of the boar was left for the wild cats and crows in the hills.

After hearing this, the squad leader shot me a glare, then ordered me to clean up the mess Batu had made in the room while he went to the medical unit for some "herbs."

That night, the squad leader brought back gastrodia and notoginseng powder. He first gave Batu a pill made from a mixture of the two, then had me divide the remaining herbs into five or six portions for Batu to take over the following days.

Finally, he instructed Batu, “Take the medicine morning and night, avoid meat, and drink plenty of water. When you finish the course, your body will recover naturally.”

As for Batu’s illness, the squad leader’s explanation was vague; he merely told Batu, “There’s a gluttonous worm in your stomach. Notoginseng and gastrodia will subdue it, so don’t worry... Just don’t eat raw meat again.” He never elaborated on what kind of parasite it was or gave its scientific name.

I thought the matter was settled, but five or six days later, Batu’s condition took a new turn. After training one day, Batu came to the mess hall looking for the squad leader and me, desperation written all over his face. Seeing the blood-red eyes, I knew at once his "gluttony syndrome" had relapsed.

He pleaded with the squad leader, saying the "thing" in his stomach had started speaking to him, that he craved meat again, and begged for help. The squad leader was visibly taken aback; muttering to himself, “The medicine doesn’t work... not a wild parasite. The medicine doesn’t work... someone raised it!”

After a moment’s thought, gazing at the sunset over the hills, the squad leader instructed Batu to request leave from the company and then return to the mess hall—they would go up the mountain together to investigate the boar Batu had killed.

I didn’t accompany them; I only knew the squad leader took a bottle of yellow wine and went into the back hills with Batu that evening. They didn’t return from the forest until very late.

When they finally came back, I noticed Batu’s eyes were no longer so red, though his face was deathly pale, as if he’d seen something unspeakable. The squad leader, on the other hand, was holding a black, shriveled lump of something—whether it was wood or dried meat, I couldn’t tell.

Without hesitation, the squad leader tossed the black lump straight into the mess hall fire, where it hissed and smoked, quickly turning to ash.

As for what the squad leader did on the mountain, or what that black lump really was, I neither knew nor asked. I understood that much of what the squad leader did defied common sense, and given his position and the political climate, he couldn’t say much. All he could do was tell us what not to do, what taboos to respect; as for the reasons, he could only hint at them.

After that, Batu made a full recovery. He completely changed his bad eating habits and never touched raw or greasy foods again. Our company soon resumed normal training, and a few months later, Batu was transferred to the assault unit. Since he hadn’t stayed long with us, my impression of him ended there.

As for the bizarre disease of insatiable hunger, I never gave it much more thought—until five years later, when I met the girl Xian Hongye. Otherwise, I might never have recalled those old events.

...

When I finished telling Wang Hou all this, the two of us fell silent for a time. That was all I knew, and all I could share with him. But I believed that what I knew should be enough to save Xian Hongye’s life.

After all, from what the squad leader had said, I deduced that the “red-eye gluttony syndrome” afflicting both Batu and Xian Hongye was caused by some kind of “gluttonous worm.” This parasite must have entered their bodies through wild game, like wild boar meat. Its incubation period was short—three to five days before symptoms appeared. The main signs were bloodshot eyes, uncontrollable eating, and eventually a compulsion to consume live animals: starting with small creatures like cats and dogs, and, frighteningly, potentially progressing to humans.

In short, this illness had all the makings of a zombie transformation!

After telling Wang Hou everything, I joked, “Just think how dangerous this disease is—what if you’re out on a date with that girl and she suddenly relapses and bites you?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to be bitten by a beautiful girl?” Wang Hou replied dreamily. “My last three girlfriends never let me do more than hold hands!”

“Damn!” I was utterly speechless. When did this guy become such a fool? I never noticed before!

Annoyed by his antics, I lost all interest in chatting with him further and sent him out to buy notoginseng powder and gastrodia.

Afterwards, I closed the restaurant early. But as I was locking the door, regret suddenly washed over me—for I remembered something that made me want to slap myself.

Because of my carelessness, I had unwittingly let Xian Hongye take advantage of me for nothing!