My name is Chen Zixuan, and I was born in an ancient small mountain village in southwest Sichuan, which is surrounded by mountains and has beautiful scenery, called Tsing Yi Village.

In my childhood memories, my hometown has always been quiet and peaceful, and nothing extraordinary has ever happened. It wasn't until I was ten years old that the demolition of a temple unveiled its mystery before me.

This temple is called the Snake King Temple, as the name suggests, this temple does not worship immortals, does not worship gods, but is dedicated to the king of a snake.

The temple is not big, but the location is very important, just built on the road between the village and the back mountain, the two big willow trees in front of the temple are luxuriant, in the hot summer, cast a shade on the flat ground in front of the temple, it is a good place to enjoy the shade. But since I can remember, I've never seen anyone resting here.

The adults in the village strictly forbade children to play in front of the temple, let alone enter the temple without permission. It is only during the annual festival that we have the privilege of seeing the statue of the white snake enshrined in the middle of the temple. The god statue is scaly and armory, with electric eyes and bloody tongue, and it looks majestic.

According to the stele in front of the temple, this temple was built in the 28th year of Kangxi, which has a history of more than 300 years. As for why the ancestors of Tsing Yi Village did not worship the gods and Buddhas, but instead sacrificed to this snake monarch who resembled an evil god, this has to start with the story that my grandfather told me when I was a child.

It is said that during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a farmer named Chen Fugui in Tsing Yi Village, who was hardworking and capable, loyal and honest. He relied on a few acres of thin fields on the back mountain, saved a lot of family wealth, and later married a daughter-in-law named Xiulian in a neighboring village. After a few years, Xiulian gave birth to a big fat boy, named Chen Shengzhi, a family of three, happy and happy.

It wasn't until the seventeenth year of Kangxi, that is, when Chen Shengzhi was fifteen or sixteen years old, that a strange thing befell the Chen family. That day, Chen Fugui was farming in the fields of the back mountain as usual, it was noon, the sun was shining, Chen Fugui was hungry and thirsty in the field, but he didn't see his wife Xiulian bringing food to him, and he didn't feel suspicious.

Chen Fugui was hungry, and he had some ominous premonitions in his heart, so he put down his farm work in the fields and rushed home. Unexpectedly, when he was halfway up the mountain, he saw his wife fainting on the side of the road, and the food in the basket was spilled on the ground. Xiulian's eyes were closed, her face was peachy, and there seemed to be a large mass in her abdomen, bulging high, and sometimes there were signs of squirming.

Chen Fugui had the courage to step forward and pick up Xiulian's clothes, but he was taken aback. A white snake the thickness of a fist was lying on Xiulian's abdomen, coiled in a ball. The white snake was startled by Chen Fugui, the snake's head was raised, and its green eyes stared at Chen Fugui, looking extremely hideous.

Chen Fugui was stunned for a moment, and when he came back to his senses, the white snake had already swam into the grass beside the road, and disappeared in an instant. And after Xiulian woke up, she was secretive about the events of the day and refused to speak.

Three months later, Xiulian's belly gradually bulged, and she looked pregnant. In ancient times, the more children the better the family luck, and the people in the village said hello to Chen Fugui, but Chen Fugui was frowning and his temper became more and more irritable.

The human race reproduces, and they are all conceived in October. But Xiulian's baby was raised for twelve months, and finally gave birth to a monster baby amid the rumors and doubts of the villagers, this baby looks like a human, but the whole body is covered with white scale armor, and a pair of vertical pupils flickering coldly, which scared the delivery of the stable woman fainted.

Now the village can explode, the village elders led people to drag Xiulian and the monster baby she gave birth to out and tied them to the tree, they said that Chen's Xiulian and the monster fornicated and messed up the human road, and wanted to burn her to death with the evil seed she gave birth.

And Chen Fugui sat at the door without saying a word, watching his daughter-in-law being burned to char by the villagers. The snake baby tied to the tree, watching his old mother being burned alive, was so frightened that he cried, and his dark golden eyes were full of resentment and coldness.

When the villagers wanted to light the snake baby again, a black wind suddenly blew between the heavens and the earth, the yin wind shouted, the yellow sand covered the sky, and the people who blew couldn't open their eyes. When the wind calmed down, there was still a trace of the snake baby on the tree, and even Xiulian's charred bones disappeared with the black wind.

As the saying goes, there are endless troubles after fighting a snake without dying, and now the villagers can panic, a white snake that has become a fine and a snake baby who has died is equivalent to hanging a life-urging sword in the village.

Several clan elders specially invited Mr. Taoist from the county to enter the mountain to subdue demons, but the people never came out after entering. Three days later, a heavy fog shrouded the entire village, and along with the fog came countless snake python spirits, all over the mountains and fields, boundless.

The fog covered the field for a day and a night, and when the fog cleared, there were no more corpses scattered all over the field.

The story should have ended here, but what people didn't expect was that Chen Fugui's son Chen Shengzhi happened to take the government exam in the county and escaped this catastrophe.

This Chen Shengzhi has a strong personality, seeing his parents die tragically and the whole village being slaughtered, he hates it so much that his eyes are split. He resolutely gave up his identity as a "child", left his hometown, traveled to various famous mountains and Daze, and asked for immortals, in order to take revenge.

He has been gone for eleven years, and when Chen Shengzhi returned to his homeland, he was already dressed as a Taoist, with a magic sword at his waist and a dust whisk in his hand, which was indescribably chic and elegant.

According to my grandfather's account, Chen Shengzhi entered the mountain alone, fought with the white snake in the mountain for three days and three nights, and finally cut off the snake's head with a sword and suppressed it at the foot of the mountain, which is where the Snake Jun Temple is located today.

When I asked about the snake baby that Chan gave birth to, my grandfather shook his head and told me that he didn't know.

And when I asked Chen Shengzhi why he wanted to build a temple for the white snake at the foot of the mountain, and let future generations sacrifice and worship it every year, my grandfather didn't answer, but just looked at me meaningfully.

That look seemed to be looking at a rare treasure.

After 300 years of wind and rain, this snake temple is still standing, it is the symbol of our village, but also the patron saint of the village.

According to the old people in the village, since the establishment of the Snake Jun Temple, our Tsing Yi Village has been in good weather, and there has never been a disaster, even if it is the great famine that swept the whole country after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the people in the village can rely on the fat rabbits and mountain deer on the back mountain to save their lives.

But the good times didn't last long, and on this day, the Snake King Temple finally ushered in its end day, and disaster also came.

Several tea merchants took a fancy to the fertile land in the back mountain of our village, and they wanted to build a Tibetan tea planting base in the back mountain. Tibetan tea is a specialty of our local area, and it is the daily necessities of nearly three million Tibetan compatriots among the ethnic minorities.

The county government is very keen on the high tea tax and the prospect of economic growth. The tea merchants contracted the land in the back mountain, and the villagers did not have much opinion under the various benefits of the government, but when it came to demolishing the snake temple at the foot of the mountain to build a winding mountain road, it was like a hornet's nest, and the villagers immediately turned their faces and drove the negotiators out of the village.

The leaders of the county were angry in an instant, damn it, these people in the mountains and wilderness simply don't know how to lift. Since the soft one is not good, then I will give you the hard one, and immediately sent a famous ace demolition team in the county, led by Li Daoscar, who is known as "pulling out the mountain when encountering the mountain, crossing the bridge and demolishing the bridge".

That day, I was playing marble with my friends under the big tree at the head of the village, when I suddenly heard a roar, and I looked up and couldn't help but be startled. Two large forklifts are driving on the road at the entrance of the village, and the bright yellow spray paint is shining in the sun, which makes people's eyes hurt.

Behind the forklift there were three tractors, each of which was full of young men, each carrying steel rods, big sticks, and the like.

Where have I ever seen such a battle, I was so frightened that I didn't come back to my senses until the neighbor's Ermao pulled me, and a few of us little kids followed behind those tractors, laughing and watching the excitement.

By the time we reached the foot of the mountain, the Snake Monarch Temple had been surrounded by a crowd of black oppressors, and the two ancient willow trees seemed a little lonely and helpless at this moment.

"Uncle Cai, you can't let these turtle sons tear down the temple!"

"That's right, the temple can't be demolished! Get them out! ”

……

I heard the villagers calling my grandfather's name and rushed through the crowd. Grandpa stood on the flat ground in front of him in gray cloth clothes, with his waist straight, like a warrior in a novel.

I stepped forward and called "grandpa", grandpa smiled down at me, held my immature palm, I immediately felt a warmth in my heart, even at this moment in the face of a group of fierce demolition team members, there is no trace of nervousness on my face.

Grandpa is the patriarch of our Chen family, and 70% of the people in the village are surnamed Chen, so even if grandpa is not the village head, what he says is more effective than the village chief, because behind him, there are all the people surnamed Chen, China under the patriarchal system, blood is thicker than water.

When my grandfather was young, he went down the mountain to follow the tea horse gang to the north and south, and it is said that he also entered Tibet and saw the living Buddha. Rich experience and good skills make grandpa highly respected in the village.

"Chen Youcai, you still want to stop me? Believe it or not, Lao Tzu broke your legs. Li Daoscar looked at his grandfather with a hideous face, and his eyes were full of hatred.

Grandpa didn't get annoyed when he heard his words, but laughed softly: "Li Ergou, is there still a knife missing on your right cheek, otherwise it looks asymmetrical." ”

The villagers all laughed, and the scar of Li Dao was full of smoke, and his eyes were about to burst into flames.

It turns out that this Li Scar's real name is Li Ergou, and he was a small pioneer in the Red Guards during the * period.

At that time, my grandfather was young and vigorous, and he carried a firewood knife to guard the door of the Snake Jun Temple, blocking Li Ergou and his group of dogs outside. Li Ergou thought that his grandfather was scared of him, and he arrogantly raised his legs to go in, but my grandfather didn't say a word, and stabbed Li Ergou on the left side of the face, and the knife bleed, and Li Ergou changed his name to Li Scar from then on.

"I will be the first to be a pawn, Chen Youcai, you are going to fight against the government!" Li Scar took an unnatural step back, for fear that his grandfather would really give him another knife.

"My ancestors are buried in the mountain, you can go to Japan." Grandpa smiled, stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction of the ancestral tomb, and said with a "simple" face.

Li Daoscar trembled with anger, although he brought a little brother to carry out the forced demolition this time, it may be unimpeded in other places, but it will not work in Tsing Yi Village.

Since the heroes of Shu in Cuba, the folk customs are fierce, and the surname of Tsing Yi Village is inherited, the villagers are all blood relatives and are extremely united. Looking at the hundreds of villagers with hoes and sickles around him, Li Daoscar felt a little chill in his heart, he didn't expect that it was the nineties of the twentieth century, and these people were still twisted together as before, which made it difficult for him to start.

If the hard ones don't work, then the soft ones will come again.

Li Daoscar covered his chest and calmed down, and pretended to be kind and pleasant: "Brother Cai, you also know that this is the government's decision, and contracting the land in the back mountains is also very beneficial to you. This temple is demolished and rebuilt again, so that those few tea planters pay for it, and when the time comes, spray gold and silver to shape the statue of the god, wouldn't it be more magnificent. I believe that the gods in the temple are also very happy. ”

I have to say that Li Daoscar's words are very level, and the grandfather was immediately silent, and the surrounding villagers were also silent. Yes, the government's contribution to the construction of roads will indeed make everyone's lives more convenient, and if those tea merchants are willing to pay for the rebuilding of the Snake Temple, it will be a happy thing for everyone.

Grandpa took out his cigarette stick, took two sips, and said: "Since Captain Li said so, let those tea growers set up a guarantee to repair the temple, this old temple, let's demolish it." ”

As soon as Grandpa finished speaking, several old people in the crowd protested.

One of my grandfathers, that is, my grandfather's fourth uncle, said: "If you have wealth, this temple cannot be demolished, and the rules set by the ancestors cannot be broken." ”

My grandfather smiled and said, "Fourth uncle, the temple is going to be demolished here, and we can't stop it all the time, right?" Since ancient times, the people did not fight with the officials, we couldn't keep it, and let those few tea growers rebuild the temple, it was not a violation of the rules, and it should be reshaped for the snake king. ”

The fourth master didn't speak, and the other old men didn't say anything, they were old, and the things in the village still had to be said by my grandfather, since grandpa said so, they also knew that this snake temple could not be guarded.

Seeing that the matter of demolishing the temple had been settled, Li Daoscar said with great joy: "Don't worry, those turtle sons who grow tea are the richest, and when the time comes, let them build a big temple and smear the statue with gold dust, so that you are satisfied." ”

Grandpa waved his hand and told the villagers to retreat far away, but he took my hand and sat on a boulder on the side of the road, watching Li Daoscar's men drive a big shovel to completely destroy the 300-year-old Snake Monarch Temple.

I could feel my grandfather's big hands covered with sweat, and he kept repeating in a low voice: "This is the life, the life of the doll!" ”

Rumble!

The Snake King Temple was toppled by a forklift, and the majestic white snake statue in the temple fell on the ruins. From afar, I could see a little tear in the god's blood-red eyes.

Half an hour later, a shout suddenly came from the ruins of the temple: "Hurry up and look, there is something under this temple." ”

Grandpa dragged me to the ruins, which were already surrounded by Lee's men, and there was a large pit in the middle of the crowd, and a coffin lay quietly in the pit.

A white coffin.

"How can there be a coffin hidden under this temple? Could this be the suppressed White Snake? A man in the crowd said nervously, he had also heard the legend of the snake monarch temple suppressing the head of the white snake.

Everyone looked at my grandfather, he was the patriarch of the Chen family, and if there was any secret in the temple, he was the one who should know the most.

However, my grandfather shook his head, indicating that he didn't know, but I felt his hand holding me trembling slightly.

"Damn, where did the monsters in this world come from, and they don't exclude you guys. Hurry up and pry the coffin open for Lao Tzu, I want to see what Harry has buried in his head. Seeing that my grandfather had no objection, Li Daoscar arrogantly asked his men to pry the coffin.

Li Daoscar dug up coffins and whipped corpses in the years when he was a Red Guard, and he did a lot of things to push temples and smash gods, and he didn't talk about these rules at all. But his subordinates are different, most of them are men with little culture, and they are still very taboo about some things, and the white coffin is buried under the temple, which is unheard of and unseen, and no one dares to come forward to pry the coffin for a while.

"A bunch of cowards."

Li Dao Scar's face was a little unbearable, he scolded hatefully, and then squinted his eyes and asked my grandfather: "Chen Youcai, I pried this coffin, okay?" ”

Grandpa didn't speak, just shook his head, and I looked up at him, just in time to see a glint in his eyes. But I was still young at the time, and I didn't care, but I was very excited to look at Li Scar, the white snake that was suppressed in the story, and I have always been curious.

Li Scar took a crowbar and walked towards the white coffin, he spat on both hands, and with both hands he put the crowbar into the gap of the coffin, and shouted, looking like he was pulling out the mountain and covering the world.

Rumble!

With a loud bang, Li Scar fell to the ground because he was too hard, and the white coffin board fell down with the crowbar, revealing the contents of the coffin.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of swallowing saliva all around me.

Because in the coffin lay a man, a woman, a woman who was naked and untouched.

Snow-white skin shimmers seductively in the sun.