Wei Xinyu and the other four walked down from the spaceship, Jing Zhonghua raised his eyes to see the sky of the earth planet that he hadn't seen for a long time, and said with emotion:

"Earth, we're finally back."

Chairman Wang Shouren was waiting for the triumphant return of the four heroes at the apron of the spacecraft, and he happily opened his arms to give each of them a hug, and said excitedly:

"Welcome back our heroes!"

Wei Xinyu felt ashamed and said, "Chairman, I didn't do a good job of the things you assigned, and I lost the dark planet and disappointed you." ”

Chairman Wang Shouren smiled and said: "You can't say that, it is said that you have done a lot of things for God, your name has spread in God, your prestige has spread far and wide, Belzun is full of praise for you, it seems that the earth and planet will not be able to keep you in the future." ”

Jing Zhonghua said in a loud voice: "Chairman, I don't want to go from now on, I still feel good about the earth planet after walking a long circle, and I want to stay on the earth planet forever." ”

General Jing Zhiqiang was very excited when he saw his daughter, with tears in his eyes, walked up to his daughter, hugged her, and said after a while:

"Niu, it's good for you to come back, it's good to come back...... Daddy is worried about you......"

Due to Jing Zhonghua's mother was unable to move, she did not go to the spaceship tarmac to greet her daughter in person, but she couldn't wait to urge her daughter to go home quickly on the phone, Jing Zhonghua had to accompany her father to take the plane back to Yanggong Town, and Wei Zhen was also forcibly dragged back by Jing Zhonghua.

Chairman Wang Shouren personally went to the spacecraft tarmac because he had an urgent matter to find Heng Liya, and Wei Xinyu and Heng Liya took the chairman's special car together to a closed place.

On the way there, the chairman said to Heng Liya:

"Professor Heng, in the past few years since you left, a strange thing has happened on the planet, just like the symptoms of the ZK virus last time, the patient's mania is obvious, and he likes to bite and eat human flesh, after being bitten by the patient, the injured person will soon be infected, and now we can't do anything about this kind of patient, we can't find a special medicine, so we can only be detained in a secret place and let them fend for themselves. At first we thought it was someone who had deliberately poisoned it, but we couldn't find anyone who had poisoned it. It's good that you come back, you are an expert in the genetic research of our planet, and you will definitely be able to find a way to develop a cure for this kind of patient,......"

Professor Heng did not see the patient and the virus sample, she did not have the right to speak, but listened silently to the chairman's narration. The sedan stopped in a closed military-controlled place, and when they got out of the car, they passed through a checkpoint guarded by soldiers, and then entered a special place guarded by the police, like a prison, surrounded by high walls and electric grids, the Earth Planet Genetic Research Institute.

When you enter the hospital, the first thing that catches your eye is a 7-story research building, and in front of the door of the building hangs a sign that reads "Earth Planet Genomics Research Institute". Heng Liya asked curiously:

"The Institute of Biology has been renamed the Institute of Genetics?"

The chairman shook his head and replied: "No, this genetic research institute is a separate research institute from biological research, if you are here, you are the director of this research institute, and the current director is Zhao Min, a researcher at the former biological research institute in Zhenguo, you know, she has done genetic research in your laboratory for a period of time. ”

"Zhao Min," of course Heng Liya knew, "It's that tall and thin girl with deep glasses, she is a girl who doesn't like to talk, she looks like a gentleman, she actually became the director of the research institute, she is making rapid progress." ”

The chairman said with a wry smile: "No one wants to work here, she is the only candidate." ”

Everyone entered the building together, the whole building was very quiet, it was difficult for them to meet a person, went up to the third floor, came to the director's office, a robot received them, asked:

"Who are you looking for?"

Heng Liya replied: "Let's look for the director Zhao Min." ”

The robot said, "She's in the lab on the fourth floor. ”

In the laboratory on the fourth floor, the three found Zhao Min. I saw Zhao Min sitting on a chair next to the experimental table, observing her research results with an electron microscope.

As soon as the chairman entered the laboratory, he pointed to the equipment of the laboratory and said:

"The equipment in this laboratory is currently the most advanced on the planet, so to speak, we will support whatever she needs."

Zhao Min raised her head and saw the three of them coming to her side, especially when she saw Professor Heng, she said excitedly:

"Chairman...... Oh, Professor Heng! You're back! …… I'm doing a virus experiment...... This virus is so powerful that I have tried everything I can to find a cure to suppress it. ”

Heng Liya asked, "What kind of virus is this?" ”

Zhao Min said: "The virus is a prion, its size is only 30-50 nanometers, the virion structure can not be seen under the electron microscope, and the rod-shaped body is only seen after negative staining, and its size is about 10~250×100~200 nanometers. Prions have been found to be surprisingly resistant to inactivation by a variety of factors. For physical factors, such as ultraviolet radiation, ionizing radiation, ultrasonic and 160~170?? cHigh temperature, all of which have considerable tolerance. It shows strong resistance to chemical and biochemical reagents, such as formaldehyde, hydroxylamine, nucleases, etc. ”

Professor Heng interrupted Zhao Min and asked, "Have you used the dark matter microscope I put in a special wooden box to observe this virus?" It can be used to clearly see the virion structure. ”

Zhao Min shook his head and replied, "No." I put it in a utility room. ”

So Zhao Min instructed the robot around him to go to the instrument storage table in the utility room and bring a wooden box to the laboratory. After the robot left, Zhao Min continued to introduce the virus situation:

"At present, it has been found that the transmission routes of prions are, consumption of animal meat and bone meal feed, cattle bone meal soup, and iatrogenic infection. Prions have mutations and cross-ethnic infections, and have a large number of potential sources of infection, mainly ruminants such as cattle and sheep, and the unknown potential hosts may be wide, which is difficult to predict and infer. After research, prions can infect multiple organs, known mainly for the cerebral medulla, but in addition to the central nervous system during the incubation period, various tissues and organs are infected, and the infection is multi-way, in addition to the digestive tract, the nervous system, blood can be infected, it is difficult to prevent, once the disease of humans and animals occurs, it can not be treated, and all die in 6 months to 1 year, with a mortality rate of 100%. At present, in addition to the 1,065 people who have died, there are 536 people who are being treated with us and waiting to die. ”

The robot brought the wooden box, the box was already full of dust, Heng Liya took out the dark matter microscope placed in the wooden box and put it on the experimental table, Zhao Min quickly took the virus sample to the microscope for observation, and soon discovered the form of the virus, which was stored in Professor Heng's brain. She identified Zhao Min's claim as a prion, saying:

"The virus is called a zombie virus in the Martian era, and it should not infect people, because we humans have the suppressor gene PRNP of this protein on chromosome 20, and scientists have speculated on Mars that there may have been a zombie wave of carbon-based humans 40,000 years ago. At that time, our ancestors had the habit of gnawing on the corpses of their own kind, and it was very common, and our ancestors restrained this habit, and at the same time had the corresponding resistance genes, and carbon-based humans survived that zombie wave, and we are the descendants of the survivors of this disaster. So to this day, we humans all have a soul aversion to cannibal tribes, and a kind of curiosity that comes from genes. There has been an outbreak of this disease on Mars, and there is no cure for it, but to isolate it and let it die, and all the methods you have taken so far are correct. ”

The chairman interjected: "According to you, this outbreak of insane disease can be ruled out by human factors?" ”

"Now I can't tell if there is a human factor," Professor Heng replied, "I know that the main way of transmission of the disease is to eat infected meat of the same kind, and the cause of the outbreak of insane disease is likely to be caused by animals, such as mad cow disease, zombie deer, etc., in order to save protein feed, unscrupulous merchants directly process dead cattle into protein feed and feed them to normal cattle to eat; Or deer bite each other to spread the infection. Isolation of people with insane disease is also to prevent the spread of the virus due to the patient's bite or iatrogenic infection. ”

Zhao Min nodded and said, "Yes, there was an outbreak of mad cow disease on a farm on the outskirts of Mantes City, which lasted for nearly 4 years, and mad cow disease still occurs. ”

Professor Heng suggested to the chairman: "Chairman, you should order the place where BSE originated to be closed for a period of time, so that the cattle with BSE can not continue to spread, because BSE is also caused by prions, which is very difficult to eliminate, and the process of eradication requires the infected beef to be thoroughly boiled and completely burned into ashes in an incinerator above 1000°C for burial." At the same time, the treatment of mad patients should be treated with disposable diagnostic and treatment instruments, appliances and articles, which should be incinerated in a double-layer sealed package after use, and the patients after death must be incinerated in an incinerator above 1000 °C, so as to avoid the virus from continuing to spread to humans. ”

The chairman asked, "Is there really no cure for this insane disease?" ”

Professor Heng replied in the affirmative: "Prions have gone beyond the biological concept of classical virology, and they are the most dangerous diseases of the century along with AIDS, and there is no cure for them at present. What we can do now is to improve accurate and reliable diagnostic techniques, comprehensively monitor and detect prion diseases, and achieve early prevention of insane diseases and iatrogenic infections. ”

Zhao Min continued: "We can only take conservative treatment for patients, using herbs such as large green leaves to treat them, but the effect is not great. ”

Then everyone went downstairs and entered a closed compound, the building of the compound is like a huge barrel, a four-story building, there is a corridor in each floor, there are rooms on both sides, each room is not big, there are more than ten square meters, a patient lives in a single room, there is a screen TV in the room, bathroom, etc., the patient in the room can only move in the house, and every day is a expressionless robot to deliver food and daily necessities to each patient.

Zhao Min introduced as he walked: "The patients here are not as good as the prisoners in the prison, they can only stay in the room, and most of them will not live for half a year. Many patients are locked up in the house, they go crazy, they take the furniture in the house to vent their anger, and by the time the patient dies, basically the furniture in the house is scrapped, and the furniture is very depleted. ”

As they walked along the road, many of the patients saw people walking through the corridor, and they stretched out their arms from the iron bars of the room doors, and shouted:

"We're going out, we don't want to stay here."

"Help me......"

"I'm not alive......"

"Wang Shouren, big villain!"

……

Coming out of the Earth Planet Gene Research Institute, Heng Liya was in a heavy mood and didn't speak along the way, the chairman asked Heng Liya and Wei Xinyu to recuperate for a while before considering arranging a job for them, and they were ready to return to Yanggong City and live in a courtyard by their original Yanggong Lake. Due to Wei Xinyu's kind invitation, Heng Liya had to comply with Wei Xinyu and live with him. After all, after going through many tribulations, the hearts of the two have been tightly connected, and this feeling of spiritual connection has transcended human love, material and physical desires, and what they need has risen to the spiritual level, and they feel very happy to be able to meet every day, which is incomprehensible to people who have not experienced great tribulations.

While waiting for her flight at Mantes Airport, Heng Liya asked:

"Why didn't you say a word today?"

Wei Xinyu replied: "What do I have to say about prions, this is a virus that has been placed in the genes of carbon-based humans for a long time, and as long as they need it, they can trigger this virus at any time, leading to the extinction of mankind." ”

Heng Liya asked curiously: "According to what you say, if we want to completely cure this mad disease, we can only ask God for medicine?" ”

Wei Xinyu was silent and did not answer.