44, spirit animal (1) - snake

Snakes and turtles have always been mystical animals in the folk. The legendary four spirit animals "Green Dragon", "White Tiger", "Vermilion Bird", and "Xuanwu" include turtles and snakes (here I hear two sayings, one says "Green Dragon" and "Xuanwu" are snakes and turtles respectively; There is also a theory that "Xuanwu" is a snake wrapped around the body of a turtle). In any case, there is no doubt that the turtle and the snake have a very high status in the hearts of the people.

Today's story comes from an old man, the old man's surname is Lu, although he is already old, but because of his long-term insistence on exercise, his body is strong, and he still speaks like a bell.

Time goes back to the period when the intellectual youth went to the countryside, when Uncle Lu lived in the countryside, and the rural education situation at that time was very backward. However, Uncle Lu is a very shrewd person and very studious, which is also an important reason why he can live a richer life than his fellow villagers in the future.

Since the mid-50s of the last century, a large number of young people began to respond to the party's call to go to remote rural areas to reclaim land. This is the movement of young intellectuals to go to the mountains and go to the countryside. Uncle Lu's village also came to a group of educated youth. These young people from the city aroused great curiosity among the villagers, but most of them watched from afar and did not get too close to them. Uncle Lu is different, in his eyes, these young intellectuals from the school are very attractive. Of course, he can't say anything about "knowledge changes fate!" But he has a simple concept, that is: "literacy and hyphenation, can write and count" is the performance of a nobleman. So he began to look for various opportunities to get close to these educated youths and help them.

In fact, most of these so-called "intellectual youth" are also children. They responded to the Supreme Leader's call and came to this remote mountain village either reluctantly or unwillingly. Everything here is completely different from what they imagined. Poverty and desolation are the main colors of the village. As soon as the initial novelty passed, various emotions such as loneliness and homesickness spread. At this time, Uncle Lu helped them and took care of them like a generous big brother, which naturally won the favor and gratitude of these educated youths.

But not all villagers can get along with the educated youth in this way. Due to the huge differences in the pace of life, value orientation, communication methods and other factors, many villagers and educated youth have contradictions, and the contradictions gradually began to intensify over time, and eventually conflicts broke out.

Uncle Lu can't remember the cause of the incident clearly. So I can only describe what happened. Somehow, the intellectuals had a conflict with the local villagers. That night, two male intellectuals were caught by a group of villagers. The villagers stripped them of their clothes and hung them in a warehouse, where several villagers took turns torturing them with leather whips dipped in cold water. Pity the two students, who usually read the books of the sages in class. Although it can't be said to be weak, they are all delicate and tender, how can they be tortured like this. After a few rounds, the two children were already dying. Fortunately, the village chief arrived in time, after all, the village chief has a higher consciousness and political acumen than ordinary villagers, and he immediately put an end to such atrocities, and did everything in his power to give medical care to the injured. But at that time, the medical conditions were already backward, and it was a remote village, and the two children were seriously injured and died the next day. This incident caused an uproar in the local area, when the founding of the People's Republic of China was not long ago, although poor and backward but the social order was still perfect, under the instructions of the local county government, the public security department intervened in the investigation, and soon arrested the murderer.

One of the bodies of the two deceased intellectuals was retrieved by the family, but the other was never taken, and later the village chief took the initiative to bury the bodies in the villagers' cemetery (at that time, China had not yet begun to advocate cremation). After this incident, both the educated youth and the villagers learned the lesson. The educated youths realized that if they wanted to live a normal life here, they had to get along with the local villagers, and the villagers also understood that the educated youths could not be bullied at will. Later, the two sides gradually began to get along, and there was no more dispute anyway. However, after only a year, there was an accident again.

Due to some special reasons, after research in the village, it was decided to move several tombs to other places. At that time, a total of seven or eight graves had to be moved, including the grave of this educated youth. The other graves were going very well, but when they arrived at the tomb of Zhiqing, a few villagers had just dug up the grave soil, and suddenly there was an exclamation, and several people retreated to the side at the same time. It turned out that a large snake swam out of the dug grave. Uncle Lu was also at the scene at the time, and according to him, it was a silver krait. Speaking of which, it is not surprising that there are snakes and insects in the cemetery, and some people say that the presence of snakes in the grave is a good omen, and it may be a coffin beast, so it cannot be frightened. According to feng shui rumors, there is a snake in the cemetery feng shui, which is a symbol of the dragon. In ancient times, it was a sign that there would be a dragon among the three generations! At that time, the appearance of this sign had to be kept strictly secret, and the Son of Heaven could not be made aware of it, otherwise the royal family would take assassination actions for fear that the throne would be shaken and the country would not be protected. We don't know if the legend is true or not, but Uncle Lu and several other villagers were frightened at that time. Because this krait is different. One is big, Uncle Lu has seen the krait a few times, and he has caught it with his own hands, but the general krait snake is about 0.6-1.2 meters, but this krait is about 1.5 meters. Such a large krait is very rare; Second, it is aggressive, the silver krait is a highly venomous snake, but it has a relatively mild temperament and rarely attacks people. Flee quickly when disturbed, or hide its head under the snake, and will not actively attack unless it is under serious threat. But the snake in front of him was spitting out a letter and confronting everyone, without the slightest intention of retreating.

Although the villagers were startled, after all, how brave they were, after glancing at each other, they surrounded the snakes, and one of the fat men waved a shovel and cut off the snake's head in a few strokes. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the fat man picked up the snake and brought it home.

Who knows, the next day there was a wail from the fat man's house, and the fat man's daughter-in-law sat in front of the door and cried. The villagers heard the noise. It turned out that the fat man took the dead snake home last night, cooked the dead snake, and feasted on half a catty of white wine. The fat man ate and was satisfied, and then climbed into bed, and in a moment he snored like thunder. In the morning, his daughter-in-law got up to make breakfast but found that the fat man's face was blue and seemed to be suffocated, she pushed the fat man hard but did not respond, and tried the snort with her hand to find that the fat man was dead.

The villagers reported the case, and after a forensic examination, the fat man died of mechanical asphyxiation, and the police once suspected that the fat man's daughter-in-law did the case, but after investigating for a long time, they could not find any clues, and finally put it down as an unsolved case.

Speaking of this, Uncle Lu took a puff of cigarette: "I also went to the fat man's house at that time and saw the fat man's body with my own eyes. At that time, many people noticed that there was a strange pattern around the fat man's neck, as if a snake had strangled his neck. Another thing, this fat man was also one of the two people who knew about the beating at that time, but for some reason, he was not arrested by the police, but he died so inexplicably. ”

The warehouse was left unused because it had died, and it had been left unmaintained, and it was dilapidated after a few years. As time passed, people gradually forgot about it.

In 1978, with the spring breeze of reform and opening up, the new leadership team in the village also began to find ways to get rid of poverty and become rich. Following the example of other advanced villages, they set up factories in the villages to carry out secondary processing of agricultural products. At this time, Uncle Lu was already in the age of not being confused, but because he was diligent and studious, his brain was flexible, and he had many ideas, so he soon served as the deputy director of the factory, specializing in production and storage. With the joint efforts of the whole village, the village gradually became richer. Uncle Lu is also ambitious and plans to do a good job in the factory.

One morning, as soon as Uncle Lu entered the factory gate, he was stopped by the section chief of the security department, the section chief's surname was Bao, and the section chief Bao pulled Uncle Lu to the security department, and said mysteriously: "Factory director, something is wrong!" Uncle Lu's heart tightened, and he hurriedly asked, "Lost something?" "Not really, the factory is haunted." If it were now, whoever said that, we would probably scold him for making a fool of himself, but Uncle Lu's environment at that time was different. It was the seventies of the last century, and it was in the countryside, and Uncle Lu was convinced of the theory of ghosts and gods. Hearing what Section Chief Bao said, he hurriedly asked about it.

Section Chief Bao said: "I was on the night shift with my eldest nephew Gou Yu'er last night. We played a game of chess after eating and had nothing to do, and after a while, the boy who was left behind began to have a stomach upset, so he ran to the toilet. When I came back, I was told that there were people in the factory. Where did this midnight come from? I was afraid that the enemy elements would cause sabotage, so I took a stick and let the dog lead the way. The kid took me to the front of the workshop, and I saw that there was no one in the black hole. Gou Yu'er also scratched his head, saying that he had just seen two people enter the workshop. We turned on the lights and checked carefully, and there was no one. I also scolded the dog for a couple of words, and we went back.

In the second half of the night, I took a nap, and felt that it was convenient to go to the toilet when I was urgent, and when I came back, I passed by the workshop, and I remembered what the dog had just said, and to be honest, I was not very relieved. I just thought about it and looked at it. As soon as I turned this thought, I felt a figure in front of me. I was startled and followed, and the figure slipped into the workshop.

(To be continued...... ）