CHAPTER 155: DON’T LET YOUR HAIR GET WET IN THE RAIN...

At first, Fatty Girl just felt the rain falling, her head dripping with water, which probably explained why it seemed to grow heavier and heavier.

But she hadn’t expected that it would not only get heavier but also itchier, to the point where she couldn’t even lift her neck. It was only then, with a casual touch, that she made the shocking discovery of a handful of strange insects.

It felt like she was holding hundreds of Little Snakes; they were thin and long... They were definitely not maggots nor rotten corpse insects! What were they? The unknown was even more terrifying. The thought of hundreds of little snakes crawling on her, biting her, or sucking her blood sent shivers down Fatty Girl’s spine and goosebumps all over her skin.

"AHH! AHH!"

A piercing scream was the first to cut through the silence of the community, followed by a heart-rending cry, "Help, help! There are so many snakes, so many insects on my head! WAAAHHH..."

Frightened, Fatty Girl burst into tears on the spot, crying as she ran into the corridor. Looking from behind, her hair appeared to have suddenly grown dozens of centimeters, with a dense mass of insects tangled within.

She shook her head frantically, trying to shake off the red earthworms, but to no avail. The red earthworms clung to one another and wrapped around her hair, looking as horrifying as a half-meter-long pile of mop cloths.

The red earthworms were busy entwining with each other, mating. They clung tightly to her hair, each end relentlessly seeking new partners.

Fatty Girl mustered all her strength to pull at the red earthworms. She almost ripped out her own hair but still couldn’t get the rubber band-like creatures off. Instead, her scalp just went numb.

Fatty Girl gasped, accidentally inhaling a mouthful of the red earthworm-infested rainwater. Her mouth filled with the wriggling creatures. Without the downpour to wash them away, the red earthworms jumped about inside her mouth.

It was like eating pop rocks...

Fatty Girl hastened to spit out the bizarre insects with a "HACK...PTUI!" but many of the thin red earthworms got tangled in her teeth.

The red earthworms were in agony too. The more they suffered, the more fiercely they resisted. They launched a fierce attack on her gums and lips, their mouthparts latched onto bits of flesh, tugging fiercely.

Fatty Girl’s mouth felt like a battlefield. She was in even greater pain, still unable to spit them out.

When she tried to remove them with her hands, her hands also felt numb and became covered with the damned insects. Some of them even burrowed into her neck and began to jump and twist violently. The itching was so intense that Fatty Girl rolled on the ground in agony.

After reaching the corridor for shelter, Fatty Girl realized her entire body was infested with these horrifying creatures...

"Help! Mom! What are these things?"

"AH! There are so many insects in the rainwater! Heavens, what are these creatures?"

"My head! My hair is full of insects!"

Fatty Girl was not the only one to encounter this. Right after her scream, other women from the community who had been bathing with her, like Wang Cuihua and Luo Zhu, also let out horrific screams.

For a time, the community was filled with all sorts of agonized cries.

Because it was their first encounter, everyone was afraid of the red earthworms as they didn’t understand them. This first experience left an indelible trauma on many. Jing Shu was one of them, which was why Jing Shu in this life had an aversion to even touching an insect.

Previously, neither maggots nor rotten corpse insects would actively attack people. Of course, unless someone was dead, they wouldn’t crawl all over a living person’s body. People usually had to actively dig for maggots or search for rotten corpse insects. Who had ever witnessed a scene like today’s? And if you’re going to crawl, just crawl! Why the heck are you burrowing and jumping around, making my whole body itch? You even love to find holes and burrow inside!

The red earthworms were just like that. Of course, what they loved most was to entangle themselves in people’s hair, and once there, they wouldn’t come off. They particularly enjoyed areas where hair was thick and long. That’s why Jing Shu said to never go out into the rain with your hair exposed.

The rain would cause more and more red earthworms to wrap themselves in people’s hair. Some red earthworms would even start mating on the spot. The faster ones would have already laid their eggs in what seemed like three hundred and sixty different positions. Before long, these eggs would hatch into 0.1-millimeter-long baby red earthworms.

You must never let red earthworms lay eggs on your head because... once they start, they can’t stop. In her previous life, when the rains first came, Jing Shu hadn’t understood. Like a madwoman, she ran out into the rain to bathe. And the result? With her long hair, she found it tangled with tens of thousands of red earthworms that wouldn’t come off, no matter how hard she tugged. Soon, her head was covered with countless, densely packed eggs stuck to her scalp and hair, impossible to remove. The red earthworm eggs were virtually invisible and came with their own adhesive. The only solution was to shave one’s head clean.

So, before long, your head would feel unbearably itchy. Countless tiny insects would be crawling and hopping all over your head, some making their way into your ears, nostrils, and mouth...

At that time, there was no clean water to rinse your hair and body. All water contained countless red earthworms and couldn’t be filtered. Washing with water would only make things worse. Blankets, towels, and similar items had also been washed in that water. Even if you were lucky enough to still have a towel, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of the mating red earthworms entangled in the hair. They couldn’t even be combed out.

The only option was to shave all hairy areas clean. Yes, every single hairy area! Otherwise, the consequences were terrifying.

Within a few days, you would notice that everyone going to the supermarket for food was bald, men and women alike. It wasn’t that everyone was following a trend; rather, they were forced to. After a couple of days, the government even set up over a dozen booths at the security checkpoint outside the supermarket entrance. They stationed more than ten security guards there, each holding clippers, specifically to shave bald everyone who came by.

Otherwise, every time someone stepped outside, they would bring back over ten pounds of red earthworms that couldn’t be torn off. Once inside the supermarket, these red earthworms would be everywhere... Sometimes, the red earthworms from one person’s head would jump to another’s. Then, the two people couldn’t be separated. Soon after, they couldn’t be separated from the people around them either.

How nice. A whole family, all neatly together.

In her previous life, when Jing Shu went to the supermarket to get food, she had witnessed a scene where everyone stood together, looking completely devoid of hope. People were entangled with each other by the red earthworms on their heads. Even those who originally didn’t have any red earthworms on their heads got infested by passersby... It was utterly helpless. Even scissors couldn’t separate them in the moment. Those wanting to get in couldn’t, and those wanting to leave couldn’t either. Everyone was afraid to move—a single move could affect everyone, tugging at the hair of hundreds. From far away, one could hear miserable howls and curses like, ’Don’t move!’ ’I *will* move!’ ’If you move, I’ll move too!’

So the government simply had everyone shave their heads bald immediately. It saved a lot of trouble.

Of course, in her previous life, Jing Shu had also seen a truly extraordinary individual. It was a woman who had kept her hair long for twenty years and had never cut it. Even when the red earthworm infestation occurred, she adamantly refused to cut her hair. Every time she entered or left the supermarket, her hair, which dragged on the ground, would be swarming with red earthworms. Jing Shu estimated that at least tens of thousands of red earthworms were laying eggs on her head.