A man walked on the path across the canal.

The man wore a broken straw hat on his head, an old man's shirt, and a painted plastic bag on his shoulder, and looked at our manor as he walked. Nini, who was lying at the feet of the owner of the Yellow Village, was intently gnawing on the bones, and found the man, and his ears stood up, and he stood up with a snort, and pounced on the small bridge—

The second uncle asked, "Who is that?" ”

The owner of the Yellow Village quickly stopped Nini, who returned from the bridge to the table in a daze, her eyes still vigilantly watching the bridge.

We watched as the man approached the bridge.

"Go and ask." Huang said to Applejack.

Applejack got up and walked over, "What are you looking at?" He shouted at the man.

The man stood by the roadside, looking at our garden, and said, "I see a serpent in your garden." ”

"Snakes? What snake? Applejack asks.

"Vipers." The man replied.

"Where?"

"In the garden."

Applejack scolded, "You're the fucking one sent by the Serpent King to cause trouble, aren't you?" ”

The owner of the Yellow Village shouted to Applejack, "Don't be evil when you open your mouth. I've told you many times that you should speak civilly. ”

The man explained to us, "I'm a snake catcher, and I can see what you can't see." ”

"Snake catcher." The owner of the Huang Zhuang said to us, "You can invite him to come in and have a look." ”

The second uncle walked over, opened the fence gate of the wooden bridge, and said to the man, "Master, please come in and have a look." ”

The man took off his straw hat, rolled up the brim, held it in his hand, and fanned it like a fan. "There are snakes in your garden." He emphasized, and walked into the garden.

I think the man was a bit of a pretending to be alarmist. I said to the owner, "These days, Applejack and I have been digging all day long, and we haven't even seen the shadow of a snake. ”

The owner of Huang Zhuang pondered for a moment and said, "This kind of person generally doesn't speak. ”

When the man had entered the garden, he looked east and west, and then, standing not far from us, emphasized again in a very affirmative tone: "There is indeed a great serpent in your garden!" ”

"If there is really a big snake, please trouble the master to help catch it." The owner of the Huang village said to him.

The man nodded, put his straw hat back on, and walked along the stone path of the lotus pond.

We followed him.

After walking a few dozen meters, he stood up, facing the lotus pond, sniffed with his nose, turned back to us and said: "There are two big snakes on the embankment of this lotus pond...... " He said and took off the colored plastic bag on his shoulder, and took out a mineral water bottle full of liquid from the bag. Then, he walked forward again. He muttered something as he walked, shaking the bottle of liquid in his hand. He stopped under a triangular plum tree on the embankment, "There's one hidden under this tree!" He said to us in a very affirmative tone.

It was a triangular plum tree that had grown for many years, with crisscrossed branches and clusters of bright red flowers between the leaves. I saw that there seemed to be little sign of hiding snakes under the tree, except for a layer of weeds and dead leaves. I thought he was just talking nonsense, but when I saw him crouch down, he stretched out his hand to pick up the weeds and dead leaves on the ground, and said to us, "Isn't this a snake hole?" ”

We walked over and saw in disbelief that there was indeed a small hole hidden by weeds and dead leaves under the tree, and there were some gray fluff on the edge of the hole, which should have been in and out of the rodents; If you look closer, the edge of the hole is very smooth, and it is obvious that there are traces of a worm crawling.

"Get out of the way," said the snake catcher, his expression becoming serious, "and if it is alarmed, it will hurt." ”

We quickly flashed a few meters away and looked at him intently.

Unhurriedly, he unscrewed the cap of the bottle, tilted his head and took a sip of the liquid from the bottle, taking it in his mouth. Then, leaning down, he brought his mouth close to the hole and spat into the hole—the liquid shot into the hole like a mist of water. So he squatted down, took off the straw hat from his head, rolled the brim into a fan, held it in his hand, and fanned it unhurriedly against the hole—

Only three slaps!

We saw a stout king cobra with gray-black markings scurrying out of the hole!

The snake catcher was quick-eyed, and as soon as he stretched out his hand, he grabbed the triangular snake head steadily, ruthlessly, and accurately! Almost at the same time, I saw him leap into the air, his hand raised into the air, and a large snake nearly two meters long was brought out of the hole by him. Immediately, we saw a "belt" with a black shiny shine flying in his hand......

We were completely blown away by his fast and flawless snake catcher.

He quickly put the snake into the plastic bag, tied it tightly, threw it on the ground, smiled at us, and said, "This is the king snake with eyes, it is very venomous, and it bites people." He wiped his hand on his trousers, looked around the lotus pond, and said, "There is another one as big as it." ”

There really are snakes!

We were speechless with fear.

I suddenly remembered what Village Chief Lin told me: In the land of Lingshan, big snakes have been produced since ancient times. I saw that the face of the owner of Huang Zhuang was all black and blue, and he didn't say a word for a long time. Look at Applejack again, staring at the writhing bag on the ground with confused eyes. Only the second uncle was still calm, and he said to the snake catcher: "Master, you can catch them all!" ”

The snake catcher shook his head and said, "No, just catch one." ”

Applejack was a little dissatisfied, and said, "How can I do that, you know there's another one, why do you leave it behind?" ”

"If you catch them all in one place, you will definitely arouse the displeasure of the snake god, and you will commit a great taboo. Besides, snakes generally do not take the initiative to attack people, especially large snakes, which are very friendly with humans. The snake catcher said to us with a smile.

The owner of the Yellow Village opened his mouth and said to the snake catcher, "I did not expect that there were such poisonous snakes in the garden, and this really disturbs me. I often have guests from outside here, and if you accidentally bite it, it's a big deal, and the master has the right to take it as a good thing! ”

We're all hoping that snake catchers can help.

The snake catcher couldn't resist us and nodded.

So, the search for the next target began.

He was still walking on the embankment, shaking the bottle of liquid in his hand as he went, sniffing and snorting from time to time, still muttering something in his mouth. We cautiously followed him, and on a few occasions I even felt the serpent at my feet. After a while, he told us that he had found a target. He stopped under a huge fig tree. Under the tree, a handful of low bushes and weeds grew. At that moment, I was almost terrified. Because, I clearly remember that I climbed on the branches of that tree several times, looked at the lotus pond, and looked for the "fairy flower" that my second uncle said!

"Don't come here." He said to us.

We stopped and looked at him with bated breath.

We watched him bend over, watched him break some of the bushes, and watched him reach out and fumble in the grass under the trees for a while. Then I heard him say, "There's a little hole, and you're looking for a knife." ”

Applejack immediately ran to the front yard and found a machete and handed it to him.

He cut down some weeds and bushes in a few ways, revealing a small clearing. Once again, we saw in disbelief: a small hole in the ground.

He crouched, still with his neck tilted, took a mouthful of liquid, and sprayed it into the hole, and the mist shot into the hole again.

He still unhurriedly took off his straw hat and fanned it unhurriedly against the hole......

Once again, we were amazed to see a thicker golden king cobra emerge from the hole in just a few seconds.

The snake catcher was as fast as a meteor and grabbed the snake's head with one hand......

Before we had time to rejoice, we clearly saw the golden head of the snake tilting towards the back of the snake catcher's hand, opening its mouth, and biting the back of the snake catcher's hand!

We hear the snake catcher let out a painful "ouch", and we see the snake catcher's face turn to white paper.

I saw him quickly stand up, pick up the colored plastic bag with his left hand, stuff it into the colored plastic bag with his right hand, and then shrink it violently outside the bag, and the snake fell into the bag. The owner of Huang Zhuang ran over, took the colored plastic bag from his hand, threw it on the ground, and stepped on the mouth of the bag with his foot.

We looked at him dumbfounded.

We saw that beads of sweat the size of soybeans had appeared on the snake catcher's forehead—it must have been a pain in the heart; We watched as his hands turned from blood-red to black-blue in a very short period of time, and quickly swollen. He frowned, bit his lip, and showed great calm and sobriety. He asked the second uncle to help open the cap of the bottle, tilted his head, took a large mouthful of liquid, and sprayed it on the wound. He tells Applejack to hold down on his wrist tightly, stopping the blood from circulating. "Give me the machete." He said to me. I picked up the machete on the ground and reached for it, and he pulled out a lighter, lit it, and detoxified the tip of the knife. Then, holding the knife in his left hand, he drew a cross at the bite of the snake. Then, with his left hand, he squeezed his arm from top to bottom, inside out, and I saw drops of black blood dripping from the cross of the tiger's mouth. "Give me the bottle—" he said to me. I quickly picked up the bottle of liquid at his feet and handed it to him. He tilted his head and gulped down the remaining half of the bottle.

"It's okay." He wiped his mouth and said to us.

He pressed his left hand to the wrist of his right hand and sat cross-legged on the ground, giving us a pale smile.

We were still in shock and asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital. He shook his head and said, "No, my medicine is better than the hospital...... It's okay, just rest for a while. ”

The owner of Huang Zhuang instructed the second uncle to quickly kill chickens and catch fish, and to entertain the master well.

"You're a man!" The owner of the Yellow Village said to the snake catcher: "You have taught us a vivid lesson. ”

The snake catcher looked at us, smiled heartily, and said, "Do you know why I don't want to help you catch the second one?" Because I have sinned against the serpent god, I will suffer once. However, it's okay, I've been catching snakes for half my life, and this is not the first time this has happened. ”

He showed us the back of his hand and wrist, and there were snake tooth marks everywhere. He laughed and said that the blood on his body was all snake venom, and his blood was worth more than snake venom.

Applejack said, "Shall I learn how to catch snakes with you?" ”

The snake catcher smiled and said, "You have a bad temper, and you can't be impatient in this business." Besides, this is a family heirloom, not to the outside world. ”

We sat with the snake catcher on the edge of the lotus pond for nearly an hour, and the snake catcher's face gradually returned to dark and ruddy. "This snake cannot be taken away." He said. He stood up, picked up the plastic bag containing the two large snakes, and walked towards the casuarina forest.

We followed him in confusion, and heard him babble again along the way.

He came to a bush outside the woods that bordered the field, stopped, put the snake bag on the ground, untied it, and said, "Go, go, go far!" ”

The two-eyed king snake swam out of the bag intertwined, and then, like two poisoned arrows, shot into the wilderness in the distance. We all clearly saw that after they had rushed out about a few dozen meters away, the golden king cobra that had bitten the snake catcher suddenly stopped, turned around, stood tall, opened its broad, flat head, and spat out long red snake hyacinths at us......

The snake catcher smiled at us and said, "It's saying I'm sorry!" ”

Once again, we were dumbfounded and speechless.

At dinner, the snake catcher said, "Although snakes are poisonous and everyone is afraid, they are the treasure of mankind, and snake venom saves people from life and death!" ”

The second uncle echoed: "The snake meat tastes delicious, you see that the people of Lingshan Village like to eat it, and they have eaten it from generation to generation, and the government is not afraid to catch it." ”

I smiled and said: "The snake has great love, you see the love between the white lady and Xu Xian, the liver and intestines are broken, and it has been passed down to this day!" ”

The owner of Huang Zhuang also laughed, and then followed my words, saying, "The snake spits out red letters, and the people spit out filth." Once loved what was loved, now love is gone. The world is changing, and people's hearts are no longer ancient! ”

Applejack shook her head with a serious face and said, "When I was studying, our teacher said that we love animals and revere nature!" ”

I have a lot of feelings, who said that there is no culture in the countryside, in the pleasant village, we are all cultural people.