Chapter 23: Indigo Milk Cap
The ambulance arrived.
It fulfilled Chen Xing's desire to ride in an RV, he lay flat as it carried him from the outskirts into the city.
Only, this "RV" was a bit expensive.
Sister Su sat beside him, guilt written all over her face as she kept explaining, "I really didn't know that mushroom was poisonous! There were tons of vendors selling it at the market. They told me to just stir-fry it a bit longer and it'd be fine. I'm going to report them when I get back!"
A doctor suddenly said, "You probably just didn't have enough heat."
Chen Xing and Su Fangjie both turned to look at him.
The doctor added, "In Yunnan, we have a saying, the mushroom itself isn't poisonous; it's only toxic if it's undercooked. That's actually true, about 80% of mushroom poisoning cases come from undercooked mushrooms."
"That makes sense. When I ate it at the restaurant earlier, they said it had to be cooked thoroughly. They boiled it for twenty minutes at lunch."
That was probably the issue.
Truthfully, Su Jie's cooking wasn't the problem. If they were at home, the mushrooms would've been cooked through. But since they were eating outdoors, she'd used a battery-powered induction cooker—nowhere near the power of a household stove.
Su Fangjie sighed.
Chen Xing, on the other hand, wasn't too worried—he was the one comforting her.
"I'm fine, really. Don't stress, Sister Su."
"How could I not worry? You got food poisoning! Doctor, what happens next?"
Chen Xing also looked at the doctor.
The young doctor thought for a moment and said, "I can't say for sure without tests, but don't worry. You're in good hands—Yunnan hospitals have tons of experience treating mushroom poisoning."
Chen Xing, lying on the stretcher, chuckled. "Thanks to all the people who've unintentionally trained you!"
"Exactly!"
Everyone laughed.
The doctor chatting with him noticed how clearly and calmly Chen Xing spoke, and said, "You're the most composed patient we've seen this month. What exactly did you see?"
Chen Xing pointed to the little figure peeking out of his chest pocket and making a funny face. "A bunch of thumb-sized little people, all dressed beautifully. Maybe I've been seeing too many ethnic costumes lately, but they're all wearing gorgeous outfits."
Then he reached toward his belly, trying to grab one of the tiny people crawling out of his navel.
"Hey! Still trying to run?"
One minute ago, Chen Xing had been chatting normally in the ambulance. Now he'd completely abandoned the conversation and was locked in a serious battle with his hallucinations.
The driver honked and sped up toward the hospital.
But he also let out a relieved sigh. "Finally acting normal."
Under normal circumstances, people suffering from wild mushroom poisoning wouldn't be so lucid. When he saw Chen Xing earlier, calmly talking and clearly understanding his situation, it felt unreal. Now that he was grabbing at imaginary creatures, the driver was finally convinced this wasn't an act.
Lijiang saw all kinds of tourists from all over. Working in a hospital here, you learned to expect the unexpected.
Chen Xing didn't feel sick at all—in fact, he found the hallucinations fascinating.
The tiny people were vivid and full of life. Each one seemed to have their own personality. Some were climbing up the doctor's white coat, others still circled around Chen Xing, bouncing with endless energy. He couldn't catch a single one.
The ambulance screeched to a halt. A doctor opened the back doors, helped carry Chen Xing down, and rushed him into the ER.
Su Fangjie followed closely. "Chen Xing, are you okay?"
Chen Xing didn't respond. It was like he didn't even hear her voice, completely lost in another world.
The ER doctors came out and took over from the ambulance crew. One of them said to Su Fangjie, "You're a relative, right? Don't worry. We'll check how much toxin is left in his body. Just wait outside."
By now, Chen Xing had been pushed into the emergency room.
Family members weren't allowed inside—it could interfere with treatment.
Half an hour later, Chen Xing regained awareness—meaning he now knew who he was and where he was. But the little people were still floating around him. Now, his hallucinations had leveled up—tiny seabirds the size of fingernails and ping-pong-ball-sized elephants flitted about.
It was like he'd wandered into a wildlife documentary.
A doctor called out toward the hallway, "Family of Chen Xing?"
Su Fangjie quickly stepped in. "Doctor, is Chen Xing okay?"
"Are you his family?" the doctor asked, a little unsure.
Something didn't add up. When Chen Xing was hallucinating, he'd been speaking with a Sichuan dialect. But this woman was clearly from the Central Plains based on her accent.
And they didn't really look related either.
Chen Xing gave Su Fangjie a nod. "I'm fine now. The doctor gave me a shot earlier, and now I'm on IV. Once that's done, I'll be good to go."
Su Fangjie nodded and turned to the doctor. "I'm not actually a family member—do you need one?"
"No, that's fine."
The doctor wrote out a form for her to pick up medicine and pay the bill. As long as someone could pay, that was good enough. What they dreaded most was a lone tourist in Lijiang with family thousands of miles away who couldn't show up in time.
Chen Xing's neighbor on the next bed had also been hospitalized for mushroom poisoning. A woman in her thirties, she turned to him and said, "Your name's Chen Xing, right? I heard the staff say it. What did you eat to end up here?"
"The doctor said it was a type of indigo milk cap."
"Oh, then you'll be fine. They have a specific antidote for that one. Once your IV's done, you'll probably be discharged."
Chen Xing looked at the half-full IV drip and sighed at the thought of more bags to come. "Sigh. Either way, I'm staying in Lijiang tonight. Whether it's a hospital bed or a hotel bed, both have air conditioning. Might as well make peace with it."
Then he asked, "What about you, sis? What did you eat?"
She'd sounded so knowledgeable before—surely someone like her wouldn't get poisoned?
"Me? I did it on purpose." She lay back on the bed, staring at the ER ceiling. "My daughter passed away years ago. Every mushroom season, I poison myself just enough to hallucinate and see her again. It's just a delusion, but it gives me some peace."
"…Sis, you're still young. It's time to move on."
"I know. I'm planning to have another child. Yesterday was the last time. I'm clear about that."
"Good."
Beep beep beep—
A WeChat voice call rang.
Chen Xing thought it was Zhou Peng calling to ask where he was. Without checking the screen, he answered instinctively.
A sweet female voice came through.
"Hey handsome, I'm off work. Where are you?"
Huh?
He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the caller ID.
Song Shulan.
Wild mushroom chicken soup?
(End of Chapter)