Chapter 33 Thirty-third Night Dragon Snake

Ji Yan stretched her waist, warmed her hands, and said slowly to Lin Siping and me. "China's terrain is widely distributed, and there are many species of animals. Of course, snakes are also one of them, especially pythons, which are generally found in southern provinces. Provinces such as Fujian, Guangdong, and Yunnan can generally be found in dense forests. They. But the legendary dragon snake is absolutely rare. I found a minority tribe living in Yunnan in the notes left by my father. This tribe made a living by catching snakes and selling them, and one of them talked about dragon snakes.However, there are very few records.In fact, the dragon snake is a kind of giant python, but it is different from other giant pythons.As for why it is called Dragon Snake, there is no record in the notes, but it is repeatedly emphasized that it is very dangerous, be careful and so on, and it is marked with a big red circle.Out of curiosity, I finally found an opportunity to go to Yunnan to look for traces of dragon snakes.

Yunnan has been a very mysterious place since ancient times. It almost retains the most primitive natural scenery and primitive ecological environment. The dense virgin forest has attracted many explorers, but it is also dangerous. In 1942, in order to rescue 7,000 British soldiers who were besieged by the Japanese army in Burma, 100,000 Chinese expeditionary forces went to Burma and completed the mission.However, the casualties in the war were not large, and the vast majority of people died in the virgin forest across the border between China and Myanmar.In the forest full of miasma, legion of man-eating ants, giant leeches, and many unknown beasts, even the living are always living in the shadow of fear.It is conceivable that it is not accidental that the dragon snake lives in that kind of place.

After a few days of traveling, I came to Yunnan, and based on my father's leftover maps and notes, I started looking for that tribe.Of course, it was hard work, but the local people were still very enthusiastic. After half a month, I finally came to the tribe that survived by catching snakes. Contrary to what I expected, they are more like a village than a tribe.From a distance, it is not much different from my hometown. "Are you here to collect snakes? It's a few days early." A man dressed more like a Han came towards me and asked me strangely.I told him that I was a tourist and came here just for the fame.The man smiled and introduced himself as Buli, and everyone here calls him Abu, because Abu can speak Chinese, so he is responsible for contacting people outside to purchase snake skin and gall, and also helping people in the village buy and sell goods, So Abu's status in the village is still very high.

"Who did you learn Chinese like?" I asked Abu curiously, and Abu smiled again. I suddenly found that his tongue was thin, long, and red, and he stretched it out to lick his lips every time he spoke. .His skin is very rough and peeling, he told me that the sun is too strong recently. "I learned Chinese from a Han man for a long time. He is very nice and taught me a lot. I was a child and acted as his tour guide." I guessed it must be my father. It seems that I went to the wrong place .Abu's hands and feet are very long, as if he has no bones. The mountain road is rugged, and when he walks, his hands dangle like ribbons.I squinted my eyes and looked ahead. There were a lot of people gathered around, as if they were celebrating something.

When Abu and I passed by, the crowd had gradually dispersed.I took a closer look, and it turned out that someone had caught a python. The boa constrictor is still alive, but the snake cage is put on its head, which seems to be a kind of woven bag, and it is somewhat similar to a horse's bridle. The belt seems to be very strong. The boa constrictor's head is shaking violently, but it can't break free. Its other half The body was firmly supported on the wooden stakes on the ground.This snake wasn't too big, but it was more than four meters long. It had a grayish-brown backside and a pair of large scales on the back of its head.There are large cloud-like markings on the back and sides.

The other end of the woven bag on his head was in the hands of a strong young man with a proud expression on his face, holding the bag with one hand while the other was on his waist.He was wearing a red and black short jacket, which was unbuttoned, revealing his strong muscles. His eyes were floating upwards, and he didn't see me as a stranger at all.It was a short, fat, dark-skinned middle-aged man in his forties who discovered us.Then everyone turned their attention to me.The young man who caught the snake looked at me unhappily, but he also looked curious. I felt a little embarrassed to be surrounded by so many people at once.They spoke a language I couldn't understand, and crowded together with their eyes wide open, as if they were watching animals in a zoo.Fortunately, Abu explained quickly.

"Don't mind, people who collect snakes generally don't enter the village. People rarely see foreigners, so they seem very curious." Abu patted my shoulder. Tongue.I looked at him and then at the boa constrictor on the ground. The crowd gradually dispersed, and I followed Abu to his house.Like everyone else, the home is very simple, but the objects inside are unique.Metropolitan leather goods.There were leather pants and a leather jacket, and there was a large glass jar in which several snakes were soaking.The liquid inside is dark brown.Abu asked me to sit down by myself, and he went to drink water.I responded, and then walked to the glass jar to take a closer look.

The snake inside seems to be a poisonous snake, there is a yellow one with a triangular head.Larger than the previous ones, I put my hand on the jar and put my eyes on it, trying to see the pattern.Unexpectedly, the snake suddenly opened its eyes, and then stared at me with its big gray eyes.I was so scared that I stepped back, just knocked down on Abu who came out from inside. "What's wrong with you?" Abu asked me strangely.I pointed at the jar in horror. "That snake is actually alive." Abu sneered and snorted disdainfully. "Of course the snake is alive, don't you know? Snake wine must infuse the snake alive, otherwise the potency of the medicine will be weak. The temperature of the wine is low, so the snake is in a semi-dormant state. You must have put your hand on it just now. When the temperature is high, it will naturally come back to life." Abu walked over with a smile, and rubbed the side of the tank with a few marks from my hand just now with the corner of his clothes.Then point to the snake and say.

"Don't underestimate it. It is a famous soldering iron tip. If you bite it, you will die without serum for half an hour. But the wine it makes is very good, but this snake was just put down a few days ago. We have to wait for it Get drunk to death, and then you can open the lid to drink." I nodded, it really is a family of snake catchers.Many children would lie outside the door to watch me, and then they were taken away by the women. At first, they were not used to it, but later it didn't matter, and they started talking with Abu. "Life is difficult. The price of snake collectors is getting lower and lower, but there are more and more people in the village. Of course, the snakes that can be caught are not as many as before. The one outside just now is called Wusu. He is already a The village is the best at catching snakes, but a four- to five-meter-long boa constrictor is only sold for more than 200 yuan alive, and it is worthless if dead. Or take the risk of catching poisonous snakes, the price is slightly higher, but there are not a few people who are bitten to death. In short, I either starved to death or was bitten to death by snakes. Life is very difficult. I heard from the elders that the village used to be self-sufficient. Although it was not rich, it was okay. Since someone started selling snakes and made some money, everyone rushed to catch snakes. Yes, once more snakes are caught, the price will drop. As a result, people in the village can only catch snakes now. After listening to his words, it is hard for me to imagine that the mysterious and powerful snake-catching tribe in my impression is now In such an embarrassing situation. Still I asked him about the Dragon Snake.

"Dragon snake? Are you crazy? I advise you to quickly dispel this idea. Our tribe has been in existence for hundreds of years. No one has ever seen a dragon snake. It only appeared in stories about old people scaring disobedient children. The man who taught me Chinese in the past also said he came to find Longshe.” Abu looked at me for a while, then suddenly pointed and said, “That’s right, they look a bit like you, so you are not father and son.” I smiled, Nodding, Abu also smiled. "I'm so happy, I can still meet Mr. Ji's son." Abu's expression on my face is obviously much warmer, but he still doesn't agree with me looking for the dragon snake, but he told me that tomorrow is the annual snake catch In the competition, compare who is the most powerful snake catcher, and the reward for the champion is very generous.

"Wusu and I are together, you can go with us to see how to catch a kind of boa constrictor." Abu said mysteriously, "That is definitely a snake-catching method you have never seen before." I was a little curious, But Abu didn't go any further, so he had to give up.At night, I ate snake meat rice at his house, which was quite delicious. At night, I slept on the bamboo mat, and the moonlight shone silver through the wine bottle containing the poisonous snake.I slept until dawn until Abu woke me up.I rubbed my eyes and heard the cheers of many people outside the door. I went out and saw that many girls were dancing in gorgeous national costumes. "After the snake catching competition is the Snake Festival, so everyone will celebrate, but I'm afraid there will be fewer and fewer opportunities to celebrate like this in the future." Abu said with a sigh.He told me that because some young people were not skilled enough to forcibly catch snakes, several of them died, so the patriarch said that the snake catching competitions in the future will gradually decrease until they stop.The young man from yesterday, Wusu, came over. Today he changed into a gray tights, his feet and arms were wrapped in a thick white cloth, and he wore a big cloth bag around his waist. A rope as thick as a thumb is slung over it. It seems that this is a tool for catching snakes.He didn't look at me, went straight into the room, and then talked to Abu, unfortunately I didn't understand a word, but Wusu seemed very upset, pointed at me, and shouted at Abu again, but he seemed very depressed in the end I walked out of the room, grabbed the rope on my chest with my hand, and gave me a hard look. The three of them had been preparing to set off for a long time, and Abu also wrapped a white cloth for me, because there are many miasma and mosquitoes in the mountains deep in the woods, this is a better time to go into the mountains, but we still have to pay attention.Abu also brought a lot of medicines, mostly in small tile bottles. After nine o'clock in the morning, all the participants in the snake catching competition set off one after another. "Let's catch rock snakes." Abu talked to Wusu and told me back.Now the three of us are rock climbing on a steep rock, I was surprised to hear it. "What snake?" "Rock snakes, they are very big, six to seven meters long, or even longer, they live in caves, and they usually go out at night. Rock snakes are different from other snakes in that they are relatively slow, and they prey on their sense of smell. You can't even run away if you stare at it." "Why?" I asked curiously.Abu laughed and said: "Because the rock snake's mouth is big and flat, and its huge body is like a bellows. After getting close to the prey, it will be sucked in directly by suction, then strangled, and finally swallowed. However, the method of catching it is very special It seems that Wusu must catch the rock snake to prove himself." Abu looked at the vigorous back of Wusu who was climbing the mountain at the front, and sighed: "I hope nothing happens to him." The three of them walked along the mountain road until the sun was high. I looked at my watch and it was almost noon.Kewusu didn't mean to stop at all, my physical strength was a little weak, and I was slowly thrown behind.Abu and Wusu were talking in front, and sometimes they quarreled loudly. I began to hate this young man named Wusu, because when he looked back at me, I always felt that he was contemptuous.Finally, we stopped in an open area among the mountains.Not far away, there is a dark cave, about two people tall. "The rock snake's nose is very powerful, you have to put this on." Abu found a green one from the bottles and jars he brought, and after opening it came out a very strong smell, which was very unpleasant. "What is this?" I took it and applied it carefully. Abu repeatedly told me to apply it on the whole body as much as possible without missing it.After I finished applying it, I handed the bottle to Abu, but he put it away and didn't apply it myself. I couldn't help asking him, Abu smiled and licked his lips with his tongue. "Wusu and I both grew up here, and we have the smell of snakes on our bodies. You are a foreigner, so you need to apply it." After finishing speaking, he stared at me, which made me feel hairy. His eyes didn't know why. Like the eyes of the snake in the bottle yesterday, they were all gray. Wusu yelled at Abu, and Abu replied a few words. It seemed that the two were still arguing, but finally Wusu gave in and ran away unhappy. "How to catch it?" I asked Abu, but Abu smiled at me. "Do you know how to catch dragon snakes?" I was very surprised, didn't he mean to catch rock snakes, didn't he always tell me not to think about catching dragon snakes?He circles around me, looking at the sun as he goes. "Dragon snake is a god, you know, it is a big snake that is about to transform into a dragon, but just like human beings, they have to go through disasters if they want to cultivate immortality, and dragon snakes want to devour the corpses of the dead to save the undead and practice. But if it devours a living person, it will temporarily lose its strength, and there is no danger." "What does this mean?" I suddenly felt that he was dangerous.Subconsciously took a few steps back.Abu stopped, he looked at the sun, and finally at me. "Dragon snakes are at their weakest at noon, and you are smeared with a corpse-scented oil that can cover the smell of living people. To catch dragon snakes, you must have bait. And you are the best bait. Here The rule is that once a dead person is carried here to let the dragon and snake escape, the rule has not changed for so many years. But I can't control it anymore, as long as I can catch the dragon and snake, it will be a pile of gold, and the whole village will be rich , but none of them dared to use it as bait. Unfortunately, you actually brought it to your door. More than 20 years ago, your father saw a dragon and snake eating corpses, so he mistakenly thought that the dragon and snake were fierce beasts. But today Now that you’re here, you can take a look, and it’s at a close distance, hahahaha.” Abu started laughing loudly, and I felt dizzy, my legs went limp, and I fell down.The last sentence I heard before losing consciousness was Abu's. "The oil also contains rosemary, which will enter your skin when exposed to sunlight. Sleep well." I don't know how long it took, but I seemed to be woken up by the icy ground.I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying in the cave. Abu and Wusu had long since disappeared. I wanted to struggle to get up, but my body had no strength at all, and my hands and feet seemed not to be my own.It's okay if you just can't move, the effect of Mixiang will disappear sooner or later.But there was a creeping sound coming from inside the hole. I saw two eyes glowing green. Is it a dragon snake? With the light from outside, I vaguely saw something crawling out of it.Then there was heavy breathing in my face. It smelled so bad that I almost gagged. It smelled like putrefaction and animals.It seems that under the stimulation of this smell, the effect of the scent is less, and I seem to be able to move a little bit, but in this case, it is useless even if I can run, because I have already seen it. How to describe it, the Dragon Snake can no longer be called a snake. Its forehead has two large tumor-like bumps above its eyes, and its eyes are deeply sunken. There are actually long beards on both sides of its mouth, which are very long. Float to the back of your head.The scales on the back of the neck are much larger and thicker than ordinary snake scales, and the whole body is red. On both sides of the body, you can already see the prototype with feet, like a gecko, but it has no real function, it still relies on crawling move. Much bigger than I imagined, the head alone was almost bigger than my body.The curled and crawling dragon snake seemed to have found me, and moved towards me quickly with its tongue out.The sound of snake scales rubbing against the ground can even be felt on my skin. Just for a moment, my feet felt cold. It turned out that the dragon snake was already swallowing it from my feet.My eyes are facing the dragon snake's eyes, its eyes are very cold, although I know its eyesight is not good, maybe it can't see anything at all, but I am still afraid of its eyes. It's hard to imagine what it's like to be swallowed alive by something. I once knew a kind of snake catcher who used himself as food to lure the snake to dislocate his jaw and swallow it. When he swallowed his thigh, he quickly sat up and killed the snake. At this time, the snake was defenseless.I thought it was just a joke, but I tried it myself today. The dragon snake's mouth is so big that it can swallow me in one go, but it just holds it bit by bit, sending my body in with the peristalsis of the upper and lower jaws every time it opens its mouth.I thought to myself that eating corpses for a long time might have made his appetite very bad. My toes can clearly feel the inner mucous membrane and muscles of the dragon snake. It has swallowed up my knees. I don't know what Abu and Wusu are trying to do.At this time, the dragon snake suddenly stopped swallowing, and then spit me out violently, then raised its head, shaking in pain, my body could move, and quickly ran out holding on to the stone wall, with the dragon snake's feet all on my feet slime. "Thank you!" Abu appeared out of nowhere, looked at the dragon and snake struggling violently as if looking at the scenery, and then said in surprise: "It is bigger than it was decades ago, and it is closer to the dragon and snake." Dragon, maybe in a few days it can really turn into a dragon and fly into the sky." Wusu came over, the two talked for a while, Wusu tied me up like a rice dumpling with a rope. "When I bring the dragon snake back, the people in the village will enshrine me like a god." Abu smiled triumphantly, and his slender tongue stuck out again, as if that mouth could no longer hold such a big tongue . "No, I heard that the meat of the dragon and snake will not grow old. I can't miss this opportunity." Abu's eyes glowed with greed, and he pulled out a dagger from his waist. He was waiting for the dragon and snake to stop, waiting for the dragon and snake to stop strength.Finally, Dragon Snake collapsed on the ground, leaning his head on the side weakly, and curled up his body.Abu walked over happily, but was held back by Wusu, who shook his head desperately, and the two started arguing.In the end, Abu ignored Wusu's obstruction and forcibly walked over.As he walked, he muttered.Trembling, he walked up to the dragon snake's neck and plunged the dagger into it.The dragon and snake didn't seem to respond at all, allowing Abu to cut off a large piece of meat. Abu came out excitedly with the dragon and snake meat in his hand. "Eat this, you can live forever, maybe I can sell this somewhere, hahahaha." Abu laughed arrogantly, with his back to the entrance of the cave.Wusu and I were facing each other.So, we both saw it.The bag on the dragon snake's head is like a moth coming out of a cocoon, with two long horns sticking out, and the limbs around the body also sticking out. Now it doesn't need to crawl at all.The entire head also becomes huge.The dragon snake was standing right behind Abu, and the wound on its neck had fully recovered. Wusu stammered and pointed at Abu, then ran away screaming strangely.Abu also felt it. He turned his head with fear, and the smile that hadn't been wiped off just now was still on his face, but when he just turned his head, what greeted him was the big mouth of the dragon and snake. In just one moment, Abu fell into the dragon snake's mouth. The kicking feet outside the mouth and the hand holding the dragon snake meat all proved that he was not dead yet.But soon the dragon snake swallowed him whole, and I could see the wriggling mass coming out of the dragon snake's throat. Is it my turn next?I close my eyes and die, my strength is completely superfluous in front of the fetish.It doesn't seem to interest me though.When I opened my eyes, I hadn't noticed it. There is nothing on the whole ground except for some tools left by Abu on the ground. I feel like I am in a dream.The dragon snake turned into a dragon?Or did it go somewhere else? Later, I broke the rope by relying on stones, and I couldn't find the village after walking for a long time, but I was lucky enough to be rescued by a few travelers, so that the survivors could come back.Those travelers said that they saw a foreign object in the sky and went in this direction.I thought, maybe what they saw was the dragon snake. "I looked at Ji Yan, it was really hard to believe that he described the matter so easily, you know Lin Siping and I were very surprised. "I searched for all the historical materials about the dragon and snake. It turns out that the dragon and snake practiced dragon transformation by eating corpses and saving the dead. Similar to the role of a judge, I am afraid that Abu will not know why he will be eaten until he dies." "Greed is a word, just like the bureau chief who really fell into the eye of money, greed is the root of all crimes." I couldn't help but say. "Oh, what kind of story is that?" Ji Yan and Lin Siping asked.I cleared my throat. "This is a story about money eyes."