Chapter Seven: Poisonous Insects

  The off-road vehicle crossed the mountain road and walked on the stone bridge. In Xu Mo's nervousness, nothing unexpected happened, and they arrived at their destination safely.

  Wasn't the content of the Book of Revelation what he had guessed? Xu Mo's heart was filled with doubts.

  The parking area is a square, with over a dozen trucks parked in the distance, loaded with various furniture and beds. Next to the trucks are some hand carts scattered about. In front of the square is an undulating mountain range, although there is a small path that passes through it, the trucks cannot drive up it. From among the trees on the mountain, one can vaguely see wooden houses, pavilions, and thatched cottages.

  The part-time job apparently includes unloading these furniture-like things from the car and carrying them to the house in the mountain resort, and setting them up.

  It was just 3 pm then, and the thin man arranged for work to be done with the remaining time, and wages were calculated at half a day.

  Logically, this kind of part-time job cannot be finished at 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening. At least it should last until 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening, or even 10 o'clock to count as a day's work. However, since the terrain on this mountain is treacherous and accidents are prone to happen at night, we can stop working at 6:30 to have dinner and do not need to work at night.

  Xu Mo felt a little strange when he heard this arrangement: since we don't work at night, why not send us back instead of staying here overnight? The journey of over 100 miles, plus the mountain road, would take no more than two hours to return to the city.

  Whether he goes back or not, he doesn't care much about it and didn't think too much at that time.

  The tall and thin man divided them into several groups of six, each group responsible for a place. Fang Xing happened to be in the same group with Liu Qian and Su Yan. In addition to the three of them, there were two men and one woman in the group.

  The two men and one woman are called Zhao Hongzhe, Xu Tao, and Guo Xia. They seem to be acquaintances with a complicated relationship. From their conversation, it appears that Guo Xia was originally in a romantic relationship with Xu Tao, but they broke up and she started dating Zhao Hongzhe. However, after starting a relationship with Zhao Hongzhe, she still maintained an ambiguous relationship with Xu Tao, which didn't seem to bother Zhao Hongzhe.

  The three of them were just over twenty years old, and their speech was extremely young and childish. Xu Tuo was a short and chubby guy, Zhao Hongzhe was tall and thin, like a bamboo pole. Only Guo Xia had a bit of charm, but she was even thinner than Zhao Hongzhe, with hands that looked like chicken claws when stretched out.

  The three of them were very lazy and never took the initiative to do things. They only moved after being called out, and Xu Mo and Su Yan didn't like it in their hearts and didn't want to talk to them. Liu Qian, on the other hand, was not polite at all and directed them bluntly.

  The man in the book of Revelation is either Zhao Hongzhe or Xu Tuo, but after a closer look, it doesn't seem like either of them.

  The six people were assigned a row of thatched cottages, which had been built not long ago. The houses were filled with lime and dry mud, and the task was to sweep them clean, remove the garbage, move in the furniture and bedding, and arrange everything according to the layout on the blueprint.

  They pulled a few pieces of furniture and some brooms and mops onto the cart, and arrived in front of that row of thatched cottages.

  The thatched hut was divided into many single rooms, each of which was not too large, about thirty or forty square meters in size. It maintained its original state and was a real grass house. There were large windows on the door side and back wall, embedded with transparent glass, which made it bright and airy.

  The thatched cottage is surrounded by various green bamboos, forming a small bamboo forest of several acres. There are winding and zigzagging stone-paved paths leading to the front, back, left, and right. A trellis is built above the well, with grapevines climbing on it. A small ditch diverts the well water away, flowing into the green bamboo forest.

  Na Xuan gazed around at the scenery and exclaimed loudly, "How beautiful!" But the others were completely unmoved.

  Six people entered the thatched hut and started cleaning up. Su Xuan and Guo Xia, two of them, took brooms to sweep away cobwebs and dust from the roof and walls, but when they reached the second room, Guo Xia suddenly let out a sharp cry and ran out of the house.

  Xu Mo and four others were still sweeping the trash in the first room, hearing her cry for help, immediately walked out of the door, Su Yan also came out from the house.

  "What's wrong?" Zhao Hongzhe asked.

  Guo Xia pointed at the door of the thatched cottage with a trembling voice and said: "There is a big spider."

  Liu Qian rolled his eyes and said disapprovingly, "What's there to be afraid of about a scorpion? Just kill it and that's the end of it."

  Su Yan wondered: "How can there be a scorpion in the house?"

  Liu Qian smiled and said, "There are many insects on the mountain, what's the big deal about a scorpion?"

  Guo Xia pushed Zhao Hongzhe and said: "You go kill it."

  Zhao Hongzhe grunted and reluctantly walked into the house. After a while, he came out with a broom in his hand, saying: "What a big scorpion."

  Xu Mo subconsciously looked towards the broom, and indeed on the broom, a 7-8 cm long scorpion was crawling. The scorpion's body was entirely golden, except for a dark spot at the end of its tail, clearly indicating that it was highly venomous. He couldn't help but wonder: "What kind of scorpion is this?"

  The scorpion was still alive, moving constantly on the broom. Zhao Hongzhe changed his grip on the broom to prevent the scorpion from crawling onto his hand.

  Liu Qiandao said: "Strange, such a scorpion, I have never seen it before. Be careful, don't get stung."

  "Are you still not going to kill it?"

  Zhao Hongzhe glanced at her, shook the broom, and swept the scorpion to the ground, stepping on it with one foot. Strangely enough, after the scorpion was stepped on, a golden liquid flowed out of it.

  Everyone was frightened, and Liu Gan ordered a sentence: "This scorpion is afraid of having severe poison, and one may have a second one. If it stings, it will be troublesome, so be careful."

  Xu Mo thought to himself: "The Book of Revelation doesn't have a page about scorpions, unless the Book of Revelation is fake, then this scorpion shouldn't be causing any danger."

  He vaguely remembered that the sixth page of the Book of Revelation was a small baby, which should have nothing to do with this part-time job.

  I recalled that off-road vehicle didn't have an accident, and I couldn't help but doubt the authenticity of the Book of Revelation.

  The whole afternoon passed slowly, and at half past six, the sky turned dark, the bell rang, and they lined up to go to a courtyard in the back mountain to eat.

  Xu Mo took a tray and lined up behind Liu Qian.

  This is the staff canteen. The mountain lodge has not opened yet, so there are no employees. The interior is simple and crude. The place where meals are served is a large long table with four big basins on it. The dishes are simple home-style cooking, including stir-fried greens, tomato scrambled eggs, green pepper potato shreds, and braised pork.

  The two women who were serving the dishes were both in their thirties or forties, one fat and one thin, each taking care of two dishes. The fat woman had a very friendly face, while the thin woman was dark-skinned and gaunt, with an air of ferocity on her face. She pointed at people's noses and gave orders, treating the part-time workers with great arrogance. In just a short moment, she got into several quarrels with others. Her manner was fierce and overbearing, and her words were poisonous. The part-time workers did not want to cause trouble, so they could only endure it silently.

  The thin woman scolded and became even more arrogant.

  It was soon Liu Qian's turn. He ordered a little of each dish, looked at his plate and then pointed to the braised pork, "Not enough meat, bring some more."

  The thin woman who was stirring the braised pork said impatiently, "Everyone is like that, what's the point?"

  Seeing Liu Gan's robust physique, it seemed not easy to mess with him. He didn't say anything unpleasant for the time being, picked up a spoon and scooped several pieces of meat from the bowl into his plate like he was skimming soup.

  Liu Qianyu felt it was too little and continued: "Add a bit more."

  The thin woman with a scornful expression on her face no longer paid attention to him, turned her head away, tapped the pot with a spoon and shouted towards the back, "What do you want to eat in the back? Hurry up! Dilly-dallying, when will it be done? I don't have time to stay here with you."

  "Nonsense!" Liu Qian cursed, snatching the spoon from the thin woman's hand and serving himself a few more scoops. He casually tossed the spoon into the large basin, splashing the meat soup, and instantly adding several black spots to the white apron the thin woman was wearing.

  "You dare to cause trouble here, I'll tell Xiao Chen and he'll fire you immediately!" The thin woman scolded loudly, her expression suggesting that if she weren't worried about Liu Qian's sturdy build, she would have likely rushed out from behind the table to fight him.

  And by "Little Chen" she meant the tall and thin man who was in charge of part-time recruitment.

  At this time, Xiao Chen was sitting in a corner eating with several drivers and didn't turn his head back, apparently unwilling to get involved in such things.

  Liu Qian turned back and sneered: "How ridiculous! I've never heard of a family that makes people work without feeding them full meals."

  The thin woman was stunned by his words and didn't know what to say for a moment. She turned her head and saw Xu Mo standing behind Liu Qian, guessing that they were together. Suddenly, she vented her anger on Xu Mo, saying coldly: "What do you want to eat? Hurry up, I don't have time to serve you garbage workers."

  Xu Mo was furious in his heart, but he was normally quiet by nature, so he suppressed his anger and didn't let it show, just like Liu Qian, taking a little of each dish.

  The thin woman ladled a spoonful of green pepper and potato shreds for him, and then scooped half a spoonful of meat for him. She deliberately bullied Xu Mo, the spoon originally had only half a spoonful of soup, with just two pieces of fatty meat the size of fingernails floating on top.

  Xu Mo didn't want to stir up trouble, so he imitated Liu Qian's tone and said: "The meat is too little, add a bit more."

  The thin woman slammed down her spoon and sneered: "If you want to eat, eat; if not, get out."

  Xu Mo was furious in his heart, and after slightly lowering his head, he saw a wooden board at the foot of the table with several black nails nailed to it. He lifted his foot and lightly kicked the wooden board, which collided with the corner of the table and flipped over. At this time, the nail tips were facing upwards, and at a glance, it was clear that the nails were extremely long, had pierced through the wooden board, and still protruded two or three centimeters.

  Xu Mo glanced down at the thin woman's feet and saw that she was wearing a pair of slippers. He was moved in his heart, and without making a sound, he kicked the wooden board under her feet before walking away. He sat down at the seat opposite Liu Qian and started eating.

  Before long, a heart-piercing scream came from the thin woman. She squatted down, hugged her foot and shouted loudly, "Ah! Ah! Who threw this nail?"

  Many part-time workers couldn't help but burst out laughing, and Liu Gan laughed loudly.

  The thin woman scolded loudly: "What are you laughing at?"

  Liu Qian exclaimed loudly: "Serves you right!"

  The thin woman scolded a few sentences in a humming tone, Liu Gan didn't bother with him anymore, Su Yan served the meal and also came over to sit down.

  At this time, I heard a voice behind me say: "It's really strange. In the winter, shouldn't toads be hibernating? When I was sweeping the small pavilion on the west mountain, I actually saw a black toad."

  "One of them said: 'What's that? When I was sweeping the house, I saw a white spider as big as my palm. As big as my palm, have you ever seen one?'"

  Another person laughed jokingly and said: "No way! Toads and spiders are all poisonous, is this a poisonous mountain?"

  Xu Mo's heart skipped a beat as he thought of the golden scorpion, was it just a coincidence?