In the past three months, Mu Mangzi has been unwell, suffering from insomnia, and sometimes feeling in a trance. Recently, I have been getting more and more mentally unmentioned.

Mu Mangzi himself didn't care very much, but in his mother's opinion, it was obviously a serious illness, and he must go to the doctor's house to see Yu Yan before he could rest assured.

Mu Mangzi is a filial son, I don't want my mother to worry, and I don't want to explain more, four days ago, I saw my mother urging urgently, so he said: "I can walk, eat, what is in a hurry, every few days is to sacrifice to the god of Fuxi, Xinglong Bay will inevitably come, and then I will see it." ”

His mother said: "Have you forgotten? Elder Yu has to catch snakes several times a year, including once in early March, and only during this big festival, he will not come to Longbao Village." In addition, he is old, and it is inconvenient to wade across the river for twenty miles to come to the village. ”

Mu Mangzi smiled: "It's not easy to do, I have legs myself, just go." ”

His mother said: "That's exactly what I mean, let Shui Hua go with you." ”

"Brother Hua doesn't see a doctor, what are you going to do together?" Mu Mangzi wondered.

"You go alone, you are flustered, you will run away when you see it, I will let Shui Hua go with you, take care of you for a few more days, see the root of the disease, and then come back. ”

Mu Mangzi heard his mother say this, and it was not good to push it again, so he went to Xinglong Bay with Shui Hua.

Mu Mangzi and Shui Hua arrived at Xinglong Bay, it was already afternoon, and the guests and hosts sat down and explained their intentions.

Yu Yan said: "Every year in the peach month, I want to go to Yuzhenquan to catch giant poisonous snakes such as Yantouban, and after fattening, I can take poison medicine, and I really don't plan to go to Longbaozhai." I knew that I was sick and wanted to see it, and when someone came to inform me, it was a poisonous snake, and I could let the boys catch it. ”

Mu Mangzi smiled: "How dare Elder Lao run errands." Take this opportunity to learn from the elders how to catch snakes. Moreover, everyone wants to go to Longbao Village, who wants to catch snakes at home, it is hard and dangerous. ”

Yu Yan smiled: "That's true. Without further ado, see a doctor first. What are you uncomfortable with?"

Mu Mangzi glanced at Shui Hua and said, "Brother Shui Hua, you talk to them first." ”

Yu Yan called a person in, it was his eldest son Yu Fu, who was around forty years old and slightly fat.

Yu Fu gave a salute to Mu Mangzi and Shui Hua, and led Shui Hua out to arrange.

Mu Mangzi said: "Recently, I can't sleep steadily, my mouth is a little dry, I often wake up in the middle of the night, I can't fall asleep again, I have a lot of dreams, I often have a nightmare: I want to talk to people, my mouth can't be opened, and it seems to be glued." Again, then there......"

"What's more?" Yu Yan chuckled when he saw Mu Mangzi suddenly swallow and spit out.

Mu Mangzi blushed and whispered a secret that seemed a little embarrassing to him like a whistleblower.

Yu Yan didn't think it was a secret, and said, "Stick your tongue out, and the old man will take a look." ”

looked at the tongue, touched the pulse again, and in short, looked at it and asked, Yu Yan smiled: "I have seen the root of your disease." ”

"What kind of illness is it?" Mu Mangzi said with a slight apprehension, he wasn't worried about what kind of terminal illness it would be.

"Last time you went home, you passed by Xinglong Bay, and I heard you tell me that you and that Zheng Rumeng once passed through Acacia Valley. I see that the source of your disease was brought from the Acacia Valley. ”

Mu Mangzi blushed instantly, and smiled without saying a word.

Yu Yan smiled: "Actually, you yourself understand the root of your disease, but you can't imagine that it didn't take long to get sick." Hehehe, this disease, don't worry, if you say it's serious, it's serious, and if you say it's light, it's light. ”

Mu Mangzi was embarrassed and said with a smile: "Old doctor, is there an antidote?"

Yu Yan smiled and said, "Yes, yes, yes." There is no need to dispense medicine and apply charms, I will prescribe a prescription for you, and when you go back, you will use the medicine according to the prescription, and it will be useful for storage. There is only one thing: you need to go back to the dragon village and look at the prescription again before it works. ”

Mu Mangzi didn't think he had any illness, but he couldn't sleep well, and said, "Follow the doctor's instructions." ”

Yu Yan went into the inner room, wrote a prescription on a small kudzu cloth, and after a while, the carbs dried up, folded the kudzu cloth, came out, and handed it to Mu Mangzi.

Mu Mangzi put it away, and knew that Yan Yan was the only person alive in Longbaokeng who had read a little bit of a book, so he talked to him about books.

When it was almost time to eat, Mu Mangzi asked, "Have the elders heard of the "Book of Mountains"?" "The Book of Mountains" is the "Book of Mountains and Seas".

Yu Yan said: "I heard that it is a book, but I have never seen it, have you seen it?"

"No, I've heard that. Mu Mangzi listened to the dream language all the way to talk about the monsters recorded in the "Book of Mountains", and thought of this question for a while.

On the same day, most people in Xinglongwan had already set off to Longbao Village, because three days later, it was the festival of worshiping Fuxi on Longbao Village, only Yu Yan and his eldest son Yu Fu, and a few older people were at home.

Mu Mangzi didn't regret missing the excitement on Longbao Village, because he had seen the almost unchanged ritual since he was a child, but he didn't know if Wu Zhen, a native of Chu State, would suggest new tricks to the owner of the village.

Mu Mangzi was happy to have free time, so in his pharmacy, he learned to recognize herbs, debated tastes, and asked this and that.

The next day, Mu Mangzi went into the woods with Yu Yan to look for and identify the growing herbs.

Shui Hua couldn't stay idle, and went to the woods with Yu Fu to look for prey, including snakes.

Two days passed easily - this statement is not accurate, the life of the people in the Longbao Pit was not tense, perhaps except for Mu Mangzi himself involuntarily "nervous" - to this day, it is the day before Qi Yu (stunned). If you go back according to the solar calendar, it will be around March 2 of that year.

"On March 3, the snake came out of the mountain". At that time, the natural environment was not damaged in the slightest, people and nature lived in harmony, and the Danfushui area was like a virgin, and the sinkhole was relatively humid, and there were more snakes.

Today, Mu Mangzi has his own more interesting activity schedule, he and his cousin Shui Hua will go to catch snakes near Yuzhen Spring with Yu Yan and Yu Fu father and son.

The weather is good, the sun is rising, and the snake catchers are out on their way.

Along the way, they saw many kinds of snakes, including emerald green snakes, black rods, cauliflower snakes, black ridge snakes, bamboo leaf green, black eyebrow brocade and so on. But their target today is known as the first poison in the sinkhole, the "Five Steps", a poisonous snake that the locals smell about.

Five-step down, that is, the sharp-nosed pither, also known as the five-step snake, rock head spot, etc. The stalk environment of the five-step snake is terrestrial, and the Wuling mountain area at the junction of Guizhou, Hunan and Chongqing is a concentrated distribution area of the five-step snake.

Of course, when it comes to the hometown of snakes, Hunan is even more famous, thanks to the Tang Dynasty writer Liu Zongyuan's "Yongzhou Wild Snakes" ("The Snake Catcher Says").

Mu Mangzi listened to Yu Yan say that the reason why he wanted to go to the vicinity of Yuzhen Spring today to catch the five-step snake was because there were many stone frogs there, and the five-step snake liked frogs and rats.

The snake catcher brought the necessary tools and the snake bite medicine handed down by the Yu family, and went to the vicinity of Yuzhen Spring to start working.

Although Mu Mangzi is the first time to see the capture of the five-step snake, but he has played, to be precise, he has learned a variety of ways to catch wild things, touch the class and bypass, in his opinion, the method of the Yu father and son is very primitive, but also very simple, it seems that there is not much technical content, that is, after meeting with the snake, and then looking for an opportunity to press the neck of the snake with a bamboo stick, catch it, put it into the specially woven bamboo leaf, and it is completed.

In Mu Mangzi's view, the very simple action of the Yu father and son to catch a five-step inverted type of poisonous snake is actually extremely dangerous.

Although Xinglongwan has its own snake medicine, it cannot be guaranteed to be absolutely safe. Over the years, more than one of the snake catchers of the Yu clan has died from the kiss of a poisonous snake.

Many Ba tribes are clans that are good at dealing with snakes, so Mu Mangzi didn't think so, and personally practiced twice with trepidation and extra care, the first time with the help of Yu Fu, and the second time ** caught a five-step snake.

Shui Hua did not want to play this risky game, preferring to be responsible for crushing the snake's head and neck with a long bamboo stick.

When the extraordinary Yu Fu caught the largest five-step snake in the bamboo cage that day with his bare hands without the help of any tools, Mu Mangzi had to admit that he didn't dare to do that, at least not for the time being.

What interests and admires Mu Mangzi the most is that the Yu father and son entered the territory of the five-step snake, just like entering their own vegetable garden, knowing where there are "vegetables", and those "vegetables", before being caught, either turned their heads and ran, or opened their mouths, eager to swallow these Ba people, but once they entered the bamboo worm of the Yu family, it seemed that they suddenly became friends of the Yu father and son.

Mu Mangzi knew that the father and son must have their tricks, just like the Ba people had many other tricks that future generations could not understand and copy.

What Mu Mangzi admires is not only the snake catcher father and son, but also their prey.

Around noon, they came across a stubborn mature five-step snake. The snake was driven into a pit, with no holes and no "bunkers", and it was impossible to escape.

Mu Mangzi cooperated with Shui Hua and was about to make a move, when suddenly, the snake curled its tail and stretched out to its abdomen.

Yu Yan hurriedly said: "Let it go!"

Several people hurriedly retreated.

Mu Mangzi didn't know why, but when he asked, he learned that some five-step snakes, when there was no way to escape, resolutely refused to be captives, and committed suicide by disemboweling themselves with their tails (actually spines).

Mu Mangzi thought to himself, that five-step snake was somewhat similar to the warriors of the Pakistani country.

Letting go of this five-step snake that would rather die than be humiliated, Yu Yan proposed to take a rest first.

Back at Yuzhen Spring, the snake catcher sits by the spring, backed by a small water bamboo forest, and in the bamboo forest, there is a wild loquat tree, the fruit is not yet ripe.

Seeing this spring water and hearing the "sound of music" from the spring water falling into the pool from the half-rock wall, Mu Mangzi thought of coming alone.