My aunt's family lives in Dongling, along the foot of the mountain to the northwest, all the way up the mountain, the mountain road is winding, continuous and steep, from my house twenty or thirty miles away.

Walking through the dense woods, there are many bayberry trees on the side of the mountain road, one of them grows on the side of the road, and it is a water bayberry tree with excellent taste, every May and June, it will grow a fruitful tree of water bayberry, so that season has a special poetic name, called bayberry season.

When he was about twelve or thirteen years old, he had grown into a black and strong young man, and he thought he had the courage to walk alone. Once, I can't remember what happened, in the bayberry season, a person with an umbrella went to my aunt's house alone along the mountain road. This only solo hike on the mountain left me with indelible memories.

This mountain road was opened up by the Dongling people of the aunt's family, because there are large rice fields at the foot of the mountain in Dongling Village, and there is a village at the foot of this mountain, the name is Dongshanxia, which is very suitable for the geographical location.

A mountain col is separated, and the east mountain on that side belongs to the Jianjiao Brigade of Yuxia Township, and the col on this side belongs to the Fengyuan Brigade of Huibu Township. The cols are winding, but the low-lying flats open up entire farmland, connected together, partly here and part.

Dongshan is full of Zhejiang immigrants, with similar origins, all of whom immigrated after the founding of New China under the call to support the construction of mountainous areas.

At the foot of the mountain there are fields from Dongling Village, as well as warehouses built by them. The village is in the middle of the mountains, and the fields are far away at the foot of the mountain, which is quite common in the cross-mountain area, for example, behind my house is the farmland in front of the Qingshuan and the kiln.

During the busy farming season, you can see these mountain people walking down from the mountains, carrying working tools, most of them bring their own lunch, and the weather in the mountains is changeable, and they will also bring clothes and hats, umbrellas, and ponchos.

Jiangxi has a superior climate and a good geographical environment, and can generally grow double-cropping rice. These mountain people come to plough and sow seeds in early spring, harvest early rice and plant late rice in midsummer, and after the final harvest in late autumn, they leave behind a field of grass and straw.

The grain was retracted and stockpiled, and the straw was scattered in the fields, waiting for the next spring, repeating the story of previous years, year after year, from generation to generation.

Until the reform and opening up, young people in the mountains also went out to work, and these fields began to be subcontracted to local people for farming.

This seasonal farming method has made the mountain people quite close to us, and their warehouses have to be taken care of, and sometimes they often have to borrow tools for work. The straw they discarded was often given to us to be used as fodder for our cattle.

The aunt's family and a family surnamed Xie under the East Mountain are quite close because of this reason. The head of the household is a big man with thick eyebrows, often smiling, particularly simple, speaking a thick Zhejiang accent, listening to him speak to waste the boss's strength.

There are still fields at such a distance, because after the liberation of the landlords to divide the land, there is also a landlord in the old wealth, the purchase of too many fields, some particularly remote, after the liberation of the division of land, there is this phenomenon.

I have been to my aunt's house too many times, and I am already very familiar with it, and it is a sunny day when I travel, and I remember that the weather in the mountains is changeable, and I brought an umbrella with me. It was the season when the bayberry was ripe, and I was thinking about the bayberry on the side of the road, and my eyes kept looking at it, so I didn't pay too much attention to my feet.

The mountain road opened up by the mountain people's labor, the trees are cut down in the mountains and forests, the steps are dug out in the loess, they are hard like stones on sunny days, soft like mud on rainy days, and the season is rainy, although there is no mud, but it is a little slippery, and it also distracts part of the mind.

Just when he was approaching the bayberry tree, his looking eyes suddenly felt that there was something on the mountain road in front of him, and when he looked at it, he was frightened that the seven souls were born and the three spirits flew into the sky. A huge snake is crawling slowly across the mountain road, and there is no end or head in sight.

It was a huge python, at least as thick as an adult's calf, and its length was incalculable, for when I first saw it, its head had already burrowed into the bushes by the roadside, and it was probably a minute or two before its tail came out of the bushes on the other side of the road, slowly followed its head, and disappeared into the dense forest.

The mountain road has been walked for many years, and it has been opened up and stable over the years, and it has reached a width of three or four meters, and according to the speed at which it crawls, and with the tail that appeared later, the length is at least seven or eight meters, and this does not include the length of the head position that is not seen.

From this, it can be seen how big and long this python is. It didn't seem to notice me, or maybe it did, and thought that it was just a teenager, that it didn't pose a threat to it, and didn't take me seriously.

Or maybe it's because I've just hunted prey and had a full meal, and I'm not interested. It was originally a mountain road, and it did not panic in the slightest because of my appearance, not even the slightest abnormality, so calmly and calmly in front of me, according to the established speed, elegantly completed the passing.

It was me who was panicked, the python was too big, to be precise, from the first sight, I felt fear coming from the depths of my soul, instantly spreading all over my body, making me appear momentarily sluggish, and even forgetting to run away, forgetting to dodge, and just watching it pass gracefully and calmly in front of me.

After all, it is a teenager's heart, with the ignorance and fearlessness of "newborn calves are not afraid of tigers", and after a short period of distraction, I regained my composure, clutched the umbrella, and even thought about whether to arrest it.

In the end, he just thought about it, and did not act rashly, in fact, he didn't even dare to take another step, and even turned his body sideways, leaned back slightly, and was ready to turn back in place at any time and flee in a panic.

Because the python is indeed too big, and I am indeed too young, my heart is not mature, only ignorant and fearless, without real extraordinary courage, let alone the experience of fighting with wild beasts, and the methods and means to deal with the invasion of wild beasts, completely ignorant, so I can only show panic and helplessness.

The distance is so close, it may be only four or five meters, the appearance of a python, you can see it very clearly, the skin is grayish-white, but I don't know how many years it has grown. It's a bit like the bare cowhide of the old buffalo after shedding, but it is not so rough and thick, and it is much more delicate and flexible in comparison.

It turns out that the fearlessness of the teenager is indeed ignorant, and the fear in his heart is real, how many years later, once he dreams, there will often be a thick snake in his sleep, and fear is deeply imprinted, even after adulthood, he will be aroused in his sleep.

The python disappeared for a long time, and I came back to my senses, plucked up the courage not to escape, and quickly continued to walk towards my aunt's house, and I didn't dare to pick the bayberry on the side, because I suspected that this python ate the bayberry on this bayberry tree.

After walking a short distance, I saw an adult man carrying a burden down the mountain, which was estimated to be a mountain man from Dongling, who came down to work in the fields under Dongshan. Originally, when we met on the mountain road, strangers didn't greet each other, but this time it was different, as soon as I saw him, I immediately took the initiative to describe to him how I saw a big snake just now.

The tension that had accumulated in a short period of time, after seeing this strange man, seemed to immediately open the catharsis valve, dancing with his hands, even comparing and dating, and chattering a lot. I can't remember exactly what he said now, but I remember the strange man's expression quite clearly.

Seeing a child so excited, talking about such a grotesque thing, there were mostly inexplicable expressions in his eyes, and I don't know if he listened to it, whether he believed it, it seems that he didn't reply a word in his memory, and finally smiled kindly, and left by himself.