At first, Fatty Niu only thought her hair felt heavy because of the rain. It kept getting heavier, though, and itchier too, until her neck could barely hold up her head. She reached up to brush the water away, only to grab a handful of strange bugs.
It felt like clutching hundreds of tiny snakes, thin and long. They were definitely not maggots, and not carrion scavengers either. What were they?
The unknown was always worse. The moment Fatty Niu imagined a mass of little snakes crawling across her scalp, biting her or sucking her blood, goosebumps exploded across her skin.
"Ah, ah!"
Her scream sliced through the community. A chorus of panicked cries followed.
"Help, help! There are so many snakes, so many bugs on my head! Waaa—"
Fatty Niu burst into tears and bolted for the stairwell. From behind, it looked like her hair had grown several dozen centimeters in an instant. A dense mass of worms was coiled through her strands.
She shook her head furiously, trying to fling the red nematodes off. Useless. They were linked head to tail and wrapped around the hair like a terrifying mop string half a meter long.
The red nematodes were busy tangling and mating. They tightly entwined in her hair, knotting themselves into her hair, each end restlessly seeking a new mate.
Gritting her teeth, Fatty Niu yanked at the red nematodes so hard she nearly tore out her own hair. The worms were like rubber bands, refusing to come loose, while her scalp went numb with pain.
She gasped, inhaled by reflex, and sucked in a mouthful of rainwater filled with red nematodes. Without the torrent of rain to wash them through, the worms bounced frantically inside her mouth.
It was like chewing exploding candy.
"Ptui! Ptui!" Fatty Niu spat them out, but many were so thin that they snagged between her teeth.
The red nematodes were suffering too. The more they hurt, the more violently they fought back, launching a full assault on her gums and lips. Their black-tipped mouths clamped on and tugged.
Fatty Niu's mouth became a battlefield. She gagged and retched, but nothing came free. She scooped with her fingers and felt them everywhere, tickling and numbing her skin. Some wriggled down her neck, hopping and twisting until the itch sent Fatty Niu rolling on the floor.
Once she reached the stairwell and got out of the rain, Fatty Niu finally saw it clearly. Those terrifying bugs were all over her body.
"Help! Mom! What are these things?"
"Ah! There are so many bugs in the rain! God, what are they?"
"My head, there are so many in my hair!"
Fatty Niu was not the only one. Right after her first scream, Wang Cuihua, Luo Zhu, and the others who had been bathing in the rain started shrieking too.
For a while, the community echoed with howls and sobbing.
It was everyone's first encounter with red nematodes. No one understood what they were, and fear took over. That first time left scars many would never forget. Jing Shu was one of them. In this life, she wanted nothing to do with bugs.
In the past, neither maggots nor carrion scavengers actively attacked living people. Unless there was a corpse, you did not see them swarming on human skin. People dug for maggots, they went looking for carrion scavengers. No one had ever seen a scene like today.
Crawling would have been bad enough, but these things burrowed and hopped as they wriggled, making your whole body itch, obsessed with finding a hole to get into.
Red nematodes loved hair most of all. Once they tangled in it, they would not come out. They preferred thick, long hair.
That was why Jing Shu told everyone: do not let your hair get rained on.
The longer it rained, the more red nematodes clung to your hair. Some began mating right away. The faster ones completed a full 360-degree mating posture and laid eggs. Before long, those eggs would hatch into tiny red nematodes just 0.1 millimeters long.
Never let red nematodes lay eggs in your hair. Once it starts, it will not stop. In her previous life, when the first rains came, Jing Shu had rushed out to shower like a madwoman. The result?
Her long hair became wrapped in thousands upon thousands of red nematodes that would not come off no matter how hard she pulled. Soon, countless eggs were laid, glued to her scalp and strands. The eggs were invisible and sticky. There was only one solution.
Shave everything clean.
Otherwise, your scalp would itch like crazy. You would feel an army of tiny bugs racing and hopping over your head. Some would crawl into your ears, your nostrils, your mouth.
There was no clean water to rinse them away. Every source was filled with red nematodes, impossible to filter. The more you washed, the more would cling.
Blankets and towels had already been dunked in the rain. Even if you were lucky enough to have a towel left, you could not comb or wipe off the worms that were mating and braided into your hair.
The only thing to do was shave any place with hair. Yes, every place with hair.
If you did not, the consequences would be terrifying.
Within days, the people lining up at the supermarket distribution points would all be bald, men and women alike. It was not a fashion statement. It was survival.
A couple days later, the government set up a row of checkpoints at supermarket entrances, stationed a dozen guards, each with clippers, shaving everyone clean before they went in.
Otherwise, every person who went out would bring back ten or so jin of red nematodes (about 5 kg), stuck fast and impossible to tear off. Once inside, the entire supermarket would crawl with them. Sometimes the worms on one person's head would leap onto another's, tying the two together. Then others got caught, and soon no one could separate.
Perfect, a neatly bundled family of worms.
In her previous life, when Jing Shu went to collect rations, she saw people standing there with dead eyes.
Those with red nematodes on their heads were tied together by the hair, and even those who had been clean were infected by passersby. It was hopeless. Scissors did nothing. Those who wanted in could not enter. Those who wanted out could not leave. No one dared to move. Tug one strand and a hundred heads jerked with it. You could hear the wails from far away, along with curses like, "Don't move. I'll move. If you move, I have to move too."
So the government made it simple. Everyone got a shaved head.
Jing Shu had even seen a legend of a woman in her previous life. She had grown her hair for twenty years and never once cut it. Even when the red nematodes descended, she refused.
Every time she went to the supermarket, her hair dragged along the ground and came away packed with red nematodes. By her estimate, there were tens of thousands of worms laying eggs on her head.
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So, a little random ramble from me ( ･ω･)ﾉﾞ
I rarely go searching for new novels to read ever since I started posting on Webnovel. If you haven't noticed yet, my favorite tags are NoCP first, then FemaleMC. Those two are my "core" tags, so whenever I go hunting for something new, I always start with those. After that, I'll look at "sub tags" or other tags that pair well with them, like #Infrastructure, #Historical, #Xianxia, #Rebirth, #Game, #Counterattack, #Transmigration, #System, #Apocalypse, #QT (quick transmigration), #BehindTheScenes, and #Entertainment. Basically, all those are genres I love, as long as they're built around a NoCP + FemaleMC setting.
It's already been 157 days since I uploaded my very first translation, I Became a Fairy and Lived Forever in the Fairy World, up to my latest project, The Cube Queen's Apocalypse Feast. And in all that time, I honestly haven't gone looking for new novels—I've just been focused on translating nonstop, from the moment I wake up at morning/noon until I crash at morning. I haven't had a job this whole time (◞‸◟;), so honestly, your donations on my Ko-fi and Patreon are my main source of income. That's also why I can pour all my time into translating. This is what my schedule has been like: I usually sleep around 4 am and wake up at 6 or 7. If I have something to do in the morning, I just sleep for those few hours. If I have no activities or my sleep quality was good, I go back to sleep and don't truly wake up until 2 pm in the afternoon.
Out of my ongoing projects, 3 are the ones that need the most attention: Troublemaker's Guide to Immortality and The Cube Queen's Apocalypse Feast both already have more than 200 chapters queued up in drafts, while True Heir of Chaos: From Villainess to Empress has around 100 (because I've been rushing to finish Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log and Reborn as the Fallen Idol, I Leaned Into the Chaos!). And for the 2 projects that are serialized, I've also stocked up plenty of draft chapters for those like what I said yesterday.
So, since I've been feeling a little "free," I wandered over to xxsypro, which is usually where I search for novels rather than other sites. The reason? The filters there are actually useful! You can pick "state" (all, serial, completed), "property" (all, free, paid), and even "renew" (last update within 3 days, 7 days, 15 days, or a month). There's also word count filters (like within 200k, 200k–300k, 300k–500k, 500k–1m, 1m–2m, or more than 2m), plus sorting options like "Comprehensive Popularity," "Best Seller," and "Most Favorites."
You can even narrow it down by "type" (Ancient Romance, Modern Romance, Fantasy Romance, Sci-fi, Fairy Tale, Short Stories, Game Competition, etc.), and "labels" (Popular Tags, Profession, Identity, Character, Background, Plot, School, Style). For example, under "Popular Tags" you'll see things like System Flow, Farming, Strong Women, NoCP, Game Alien World, Quick Wear, etc. Basically, the filters are complete, easy to understand, and—most importantly—actually clickable (unlike some sites that write categories/tags but don't let you click them… so annoying).
Anyway, since I was already there, of course my first stop was the NoCP section, and wow, there were tons of new novels with really interesting intros. And now I'm kinda tempted to add another serialized novel project to translate. Don't worry, if I do pick one up, it'll definitely be something with a smaller chapter count or word count. I'm not crazy enough to throw myself at a monster-length novel right now with the way things are (¬_¬;)
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And guess what… I just came back from browsing the NoCP section, and my eyes were literally sparkling ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆. I found 13 new novels with less than 200 chapters and 7 more that already have over 200 chapters. The intros were so good, my soul got hooked instantly.
Not to mention if I start diving into other sections like Female Supporting Role, Strong Women, Cultivation, Infrastructure, Playing Pig and Eating Tiger, Empress, Boss, Game Otherworldly, Apocalypse, Counterattack, Heroine, Super A, Rebirth, Entertainment, and Vest… that's basically heaven on earth for me (≧◡≦).
Of course, sometimes "NoCP" isn't listed under the tags. Instead, you'll see it written in the description/intro like "无CP", or sometimes not mentioned at all, which means you have to either catch the hints in the intro or rely on your NoCP radar being strong enough (lol).
Anyway—decision, decision, decision. (Important things must be said three times!) (╯✧▽✧)╯