"Brother Tao, what's the matter with this snake shedding its skin?" Cher asked.

"Have you ever watched a Peking Opera movie "Chasing Fish", in which the carp essence underwent purgatory-like pain before the scales on his body were removed and transformed into humans. That's how snakes shed their skin. When I was a child, I saw a baby snake peel off its skin, the old skin first began to peel off from its head, and then peeled off from its body little by little, and the snake needed to keep crawling to get the skin out of the body. At this time, the snake is the most painful, the most vulnerable, and the most dangerous. Because the skin slowly fades from front to back, it is like a person wearing shackles, making it immobile and most vulnerable to other animals. ”

After mourning and praying for the snake, Gengen interjected: "You young people don't understand, this snake is actually a kind animal, and if you don't provoke it, it won't attack people at all." ”

These words naturally made Zhang Tao uncomfortable to listen to, and even the gentle Xue'er was displeased. Zhang Tao wanted to ridicule each other and hated the stinky Gengen, but Gengen seemed to know that the two young people were angry, and changed the topic with interest.

"Snakes have nine difficulties. Buddhism is called calamity, mortals have calamity, immortals have calamity, animals have calamity, and even plants have calamity. If you don't die in a great calamity, you will have a blessing in the future. If a person survives the calamity, he will suffer bitterly; When the catastrophe of the immortals comes, they may become immortals, like Marshal Tianpeng and General Rolling Shutter in Journey to the West; The calamity of animals may be the most bumpy and tribulating, and when they achieve positive results, they will become gods and immortals. The carp can't jump into Yumen, it can only become the mouth of a person or the belly of other fish. "The roots of believing in Buddhism talk eloquently.

Zhang Tao and Xue'er couldn't help but look at each other, where did this dead old man go?

"Let's go! Let him be here alone, God nagging! After Zhang Tao finished speaking, he coiled the snake around his neck, put the two rabbits in the back basket, and caught the little rabbits and put them in Xue'er's fish basket.

"Alas! How do you say just go? Seeing that Zhang Tao and they didn't care about him at all, Gengen stopped talking and asked anxiously, and when he asked this, his eyes were shining at the snake around Zhang Tao's neck.

"What's wrong! Do you want to bury this serpent and erect a monument to it? Zhang Tao scoffed.

"What do you say? This belief in Buddhism is a kind of belief of people, and it can also be said to be a kind of spiritual sustenance. “。

After a pause, Gengen said with a faint face: "Isn't there another word?" The Buddha sits in his heart, and wine and meat pass through his intestines. It's a pity that such a big snake is buried, isn't it? Gengen was now unabashedly revealing his salivating thoughts about snake meat.

Zhang Tao looked at Gengen's cowering appearance with amusement, this dead Gengen was as sad as his father and mother just now, and now he coveted delicious snake meat. He was intent on being anxious, so he deliberately did not answer, and buried his head and walked up the mountain.

"Wow! You've caught so many rabbits, Tugu, you're amazing! No wonder I heard shouts from afar. Gengen followed Zhang Tao closely, and said without saying anything.

"Really?" Zhang Tao replied coldly.

"It's terrifying! You don't know, there are a lot of snake hunters who are trying to make up their minds about this snake, and none of them succeeded. Gengen exclaimed.

Isn't this nonsense? They succeeded, but where did my serpent come from? It seems that this root will not be willing to take a piece of the pie from Zhang Tao's hands.

"Tugu, your classmates are really interesting, almost half of the things they pick are inedible." Gengen saw that his words couldn't pry open Zhang Tao's mouth, so he looked for something that Zhang Tao might be interested in.

"Didn't I tell them to only pick the things I took them to identify?" Zhang Tao asked strangely.

"You are really, this man has all looked alike, let alone these wild things? If you look at the pickles they pick, there are a lot of poisonous snake bubbles. There are also a lot of those mushrooms that cannot be eaten. After a pause, Gengen said to Zhang Tao flatteringly: "Don't worry about this, I have asked them to throw away all the things that can't be eaten." Now they're all sleeping on the meadow at the top of the mountain! ”

Zhang Tao sighed and said, "Then I have to thank you so much!" ”

He deliberately dragged out the following words very long, Gengen trembled with joy, pricked up his ears and waited for Zhang Tao to say the content of his thanks, but after waiting for a long time, there was nothing to do.

Gengen is angry in his heart, this dead Tugu Naizi, such a big snake, do you want to eat alone? Although this snake is not raised by me, it is also from the mountains and forests I guard, and it has something to do with me. Besides, this hunting rule is a share of the audience, could it be that you have forgotten this rule after reading books for a few years? What's more, when you played with me when you were a child, I didn't take care of you! Are you so stingy when you ask for snake meat now?

What a ruthless and unrighteous fellow, Gengen hatefully kicked a stone at his feet far away, and poured his anger on this innocent stone.

Zhang Tao suddenly remembered that he was entrusted with guarding the ancient tomb of Luozi Mountain, and immediately told him about it.

"The distance between the two mountains is not far in a straight line, but it is a little difficult to walk past to catch the thief." Gengen said hesitantly.

Zhang Tao said: "The thief doesn't want you to arrest it, if there are tomb robbers, you just need to sound the gong and shout a few times, and the people in the nearby villages will definitely hear it." After a pause, he said, "I will bring someone to dig the grave, and I will make you fifty yuan for every day you keep watch." ”

After hearing that it was so simple, Gengen immediately said cheerfully: "Okay! I'll leave this matter to me, don't look at my age, but my eyesight is still good. I know the place you are talking about, and I can see it clearly in front of the house where I live during the day. At night, if he wants to dig a grave, he always has to turn on the lights, and if the lights are not on, then he will inevitably make some noise, and he will definitely be able to hear it at night. I'm staying in the house these days and not going outside, anyway, no one can go up the mountain in the double robbery season. As for whether money is money or not, what is the relationship between us? Isn't that hard to say? ”

Speaking of this, he stroked the snake on Zhang Tao's shoulder with his hand, and pulled the words to the snake again, it seemed that the fifty yuan was far from being worth the snake's temptation to him.

"This snake is full of treasures! Snakes are not only a delicacy, but also a valuable Chinese medicinal material. Snake head, snake eyes, snake molt, snake gall bladder, snake liver, snake ointment, snake venom, etc. can be used as medicine. Snakeskin can also be used to make erhu and tambourine. It's a pity that this snake's blood has been wasted in vain,"

Gengen sighed and said, "This snake blood is drunk with wine, which can dispel wind and dampness, and has a unique effect on all kinds of rheumatism. As he spoke, he tapped himself on the knee, and it seemed that he was suffering from rheumatic pain.