Chapter 22: The Vengeful Serpents' Reunion

  We were all frightened, Ye Fei Jiu tightly grasped my arm, and Fourth Uncle retreated several steps in a row. Just as the snakes were about to crawl into the gate, he rushed up and closed it.

  But closing the gate was useless now, because at this time we saw snakes crawling in through the gaps between the roof tiles, under the walls, and wherever there were openings. My uncle's face turned pale, saying that this time we had really provoked someone we couldn't afford to provoke. After finishing speaking, he immediately rushed into the house, flipped over the bed, and called us in. At this time, Xiaojianzi also woke up, but she didn't know what was happening. I picked her up and took her into my uncle's room.

  Yefei Jie's uncle flipped open the bed, revealing a square concrete slab underneath. He used force to move the concrete slab aside, exposing an underground cellar. The few of us jumped down into the cellar and then covered it with the concrete slab again. It was pitch black all around, so dark that we couldn't see our fingers in front of our faces.

  The uncle's notice tells us that this cellar is used to store meat and vegetables in winter, sealed so tightly that even flies can't fly in. However, there is a ventilation hole made of bamboo that leads to the outside vegetable garden and fruit tree roots, hoping not to be discovered by snakes.

  This basement is 1.7 meters high, about 3 meters long and 3 meters wide, with a wooden board floor that is very flat, but what's depressing is that Ye Fei Jiu's uncle has prepared his own coffin and placed it underneath.

  Ye Fei was shocked and asked how so many snakes suddenly appeared. Her small courage was frightened to pieces, is it related to the two snakes that were killed that day?

  I told her it was because I killed those two snakes, so now we're being retaliated against. It seems what that old woman on the lone wooden bridge in my dream said is absolutely true - that so-called Landlord God won't let us off, only I didn't expect it to come so soon.

  Uncle Wang signaled us to be quiet for a moment, he wanted to listen to the noise outside.

  After we calmed down, we put our ears to the wall and listened, but couldn't hear anything. It was as quiet as death upstairs. This is unreasonable! So many snakes can't possibly make no sound, didn't those snakes come into the house?

  After a long time, there was still no movement outside. My uncle opened a gap in the cement cover and shone his flashlight outwards. He said that there was nothing outside, not even half an earthworm, let alone a group of snakes.

  It's strange. We clearly saw many snakes entering the house from the rooftop, under the wall, and through the cracks in the wall. Plus, there was a group of colorful snakes at the door. How could they have disappeared?

  The uncle said it was strange, and he asked him to explore first. After finishing, he took out the bamboo slip again, read a few sentences in Miao language, and a drop of thick black water dripped from the end of the bamboo slip. This drop of black water is also magical, after dripping on the ground, it moves and turns into a small black worm like an earthworm.

  The little earthworms of the uncle's wife crawled out of the cellar entrance and came back after a few minutes, finally crawling back into the bamboo slips. After the uncle's wife picked up the bamboo slips, she turned around with an incredulous face and said to us, "There really is nothing outside, it's too strange! We clearly saw many snakes coming in, how did they suddenly disappear? This doesn't make sense!"

  Yes, we all saw it and thought it wouldn't be an optical illusion. Moreover, I only knew the danger was coming thanks to Tongtong's reminder, how could Tongtong possibly make a wrong judgment?

  Ye Fei asked her uncle, what is the black worm he released, is it reliable? I also suddenly remembered that day he also released worms into the snake cave in the old tomb to explore the road, and two snakes did not find them, this is too unreliable!

  The black water dripping from the bamboo slips has turned into small earthworms, which we have seen twice before. My uncle is no longer hiding it from us, saying that this is his raised Gu worm, usually used to search for precious medicinal materials in the mountains, and by releasing them in the mountains, good treasures can be found behind them. As for the refining method, it's a long story, and it's not suitable for outsiders like us to say.

  Actually, we didn't have the mood to listen to him talk about his Gu worm at this moment, we just wanted to know if this bug was reliable or not, but our uncle said let us rest assured.

  The air in the cellar is getting less and less, and the temperature is also getting higher and higher. Hiding like this won't work either. My uncle was also thinking of a way. Just then we suddenly heard some noise, the sound came from behind, the flashlight turned back and shone on it, and found that it was transmitted from the air outlet.

  Could it be that the ventilation hole was discovered by a snake, and is now crawling inside? Otherwise, why would the air in the cellar suddenly become urgent to breathe? Could it be that the ventilation hole was blocked by a snake? My uncle shone the flashlight into the ventilation hole, bent down to take a look, and suddenly he sprang back like he had been electrocuted.

  I was just about to ask what's going on, but before I could even open my mouth, a snake head the size of a fist poked out of the air vent. What a huge snake! The snake head alone is that big, no wonder the air in the cellar became difficult to breathe, it turns out this fat snake blocked the air vent.

  Ye Fei let out a loud shriek as soon as he saw the huge snake head, his voice almost deafening and seemingly about to shake the entire cellar.

  Before I could say anything, I immediately picked up a kitchen knife on the water tank cover and swung it at the snake's head with all my might.

  With a "thud", the snake's head, as big as a fist, chopped me off and I fell to the ground. The snake's blood spurted out from its broken neck and splattered all over me. A strong smell of blood immediately filled the air in the cellar.

  The bamboo snake in the uncle's house has escaped again, how can you say there are no snakes outside now? Luckily, this ventilation hole is small, after a big one crawled in, other smaller venomous snakes couldn't get in.

  At this time, the fat snake body that I cut off the snake head blocked the air vent, and it's not necessary to worry about snakes crawling in. What we are worried about is that breathing in the cellar is getting more and more difficult, and we can't hold on for much longer. If we don't get bitten by poisonous snakes, we will suffocate to death here. We can't just sit and wait for death!

  Uncle said it seems that this time we have to spend a lot of money, we hurriedly asked him what kind of big money, if we don't think of a way, our lives will be gone, and what's the point of worrying about spending money or not.

  Uncle Wang didn't say a word, and took out a small bottle from his body. After he twisted open the bottle, another strong foul odor wafted through the cellar, which was far more pungent than the stench of snake blood. It was even worse than the smell of rotting corpses, to the point where Ye Fei vomited on the spot.

  My uncle made us stretch out our hands and used that smelly bottle to drop a drop of yellow liquid on the palms of my hand and Ye Fei's respectively, asking us to lick it off with our tongues. We didn't ask much, furrowed our brows, licked it with our tongues, and found that although this yellow liquid was extremely ugly, its taste was surprisingly good, somewhat like honey.

  The uncle dripped a drop onto his palm, licked it clean with his tongue, and then dripped another drop for Ye Fei to lick, letting Ye Fei give it to Xiao Jianzi to lick.

  After licking this honey-flavored yellow liquid, I only felt a warm feeling in my stomach, followed by a sour feeling that suddenly made me very hungry.

  My uncle said this was a deworming agent made from several special medicinal materials, which took him two years to find. Just taking one drop would keep any poisonous insects or snakes away within two hours. After finishing speaking, my uncle didn't care whether we believed it or not and crawled out of the cellar by pushing open the cement cover.

  For safety's sake, we didn't follow him out immediately, but instead poked our heads out to take a look. The room was already crawling with snakes everywhere. There were pythons as thick as thighs, ironhead snakes as thin as chopsticks, and all sorts of venomous snakes such as the cobra, silver ring snake, viper, rattlesnake, red-necked keelback, five-step snake... you name it. There were even some we had never seen before, like a snake with two sharp horns on its head.

  My uncle calmly walked out of the room and into the hallway, but what surprised us was that wherever he went, those snakes scurried away, as if my uncle were not a person at this time, but a raging fire, which would scald them if they couldn't avoid it.

  It was too strange, and I immediately crawled out of the cellar. Next to me was a rattlesnake. I plucked up my courage and reached out to let it bite me. As a result, it kept retreating. This venomous snake is usually a god of death, but now it's even weaker than an earthworm. I touched its body, and the rattlesnake was like being scalded by hot iron, scared away quickly.

  Ye Fei also crawled out of the cellar, seeing so many snakes she was still dodging and hiding. I teased her with a silver ring snake, only then did she not fear as much, but still didn't want to get close to these disgusting creatures.

  Uncle walked into the room, took out several snake skin bags for us and said that the medicine is only effective for two hours. We must get rid of these snakes within two hours, so we have to hurry up.

  After lighting several more kerosene lamps in the room, we began to pick up the snakes and put them into snake skin bags. Each time a snake was picked up, it struggled violently, but did not dare to turn its head and bite people. Ye Fei was afraid to use her hands to catch them, so she used a pair of tongs for cooking, looking as if she were picking up strings, where were the venomous snakes?

  After searching for about an hour, the whole room was turned upside down, and all the hidden snakes were caught. We filled five gunny sacks with snakes, with some big ones occupying a whole sack, four or five at a time.

  For safety's sake, the five burlap sacks containing snakes were covered with an additional layer to prevent any from escaping through holes. Looking at the five sacks on the ground, I asked my uncle how he planned to dispose of them. Carrying them far away would be heavy and dangerous; was burning a large cauldron of boiling water and scalding them to death the only solution?

  His uncle was also worried, saying that if he killed so many snakes at once, his house would become a place of evil spirits and could no longer be lived in. But if he let all the snakes go, what if they came back for revenge? The insecticide could only be used once, and two years' worth was very expensive.

  The snake has been caught, I let Ye Fei go to the cellar and bring out Xiao Jianqian, so as not to scare her.

  I discussed with my uncle how to deal with these snakes, and finally I came up with a plan. Before dawn, I transported all the snakes to the spring at the foot of the mountain. To maintain secrecy, I sent my uncle away and personally threw the five sacks of snakes into the water, drowning them all. Then, I had Tongtong drag them into the spring and into the underground karst cave, where the small black beetles ate even their bones clean.

  After dealing with those snakes, I took off the clothes stained with snake blood and washed them in the spring water. Just then, a hiss-like sound suddenly came from somewhere.

  "All she could hear was: 'You devil, you're too cruel!'"