Chapter 31 Section 5 Walking with the Snake Catcher

Walking up the stone steps, it was another narrow path. After walking for about half an hour, I finally saw the scattered lights in front of me, and the village arrived.Standing at the entrance of the village, I saw that every household in the moonlight lived loosely, and there was a small road connecting one family to another. The old house is at the entrance of the village. Lao Gu is short and in his 40s.Both daughters have gone to the city to work, and their husband and wife guard the old house with black color together with their mother.He was honest and responsible, with a dull expression and a sad face. He was not at all like the vicious poaching gangs with shotguns in movies and novels.

When I saw him, I was really disappointed.The people I visited before were all vicious and treacherous people, the boss murderer of the beggar gang who lived in the manhole, the bloody head of the heinous slave owner, the underworld member who manipulated the wine holder and keyboard player, the pyramid scheme leader who kidnapped hostages, murdered A tomb robber gang with no blood or dead body, a well-trained, cruel and ruthless thief gang... And Lao Gu, a middle-aged farmer, a legendary snake catcher, does he have the story I need? There were three things that left a very deep impression on me that night in the old ancient house.

The food at Laogu's house is very fragrant. After many years, when I think about it now, the fragrance still lingers on my cheeks and teeth, and my mouth is filled with saliva.The rice is fresh rice produced in our own fields, exuding a fragrance; the bacon is also marinated by ourselves, and it turns into a fragrant juice when bitten in the mouth; the wine is also brewed by ourselves, which seems to be called green wine , is brewed with corn, drink in the mouth, full stamina.That night was the most rice meal I ate in my life.I ate 8 bowls in a row, and finally I couldn't sit still, so I had to stand up.

After eating, I went outside to urinate, missed my foot, and fell into the creek.The people who rushed over heard the sound and hurriedly fished me up, but they couldn't find clothes suitable for me to wear, so I had to wrap my wet body with a sheet. The second thing is to see all kinds of snake catching tools made by Lao Gu.Lao Gu pointed to me and introduced which tool to catch which poisonous snake.He spoke so elatedly that I was secretly startled.Old Gu said that these days he had just finished planting corn and took me to catch snakes after dawn. The third thing is that I lived in the Diaojiao upstairs that night.This is the first time I live in such a unique house.Opening the doors and windows, the night wind is mighty, penetrating my body and turning me into a feather.The sound of insects outside the stilted building is one after another; the night sky is full of stars, and the Milky Way spans half the sky, all of which are as beautiful as a fairy tale.

At this moment, I am recalling that night, and my heart is full of infinite nostalgia and longing.In such tranquility, the soul can be at peace. After dawn, I followed Lao Gu into the mountain.The snake seller once said that hunters are usually in groups of three, but this time there is only Lao Gu alone.When I asked him, he said that there are fewer and fewer prey in the mountains now, and everyone moves separately. Lao Gu gave me a cloth bag the size of a ping-pong ball and asked me to put it on my body. He said that it contained realgar and garlic. Here, the poisonous snake will avoid it when it smells it.I think of the story in "The Legend of the White Snake". Xu Xian used realgar to make the white snake a prototype, and realgar has a deterrent effect on poisonous snakes.

Lao Gu is holding a wooden stick with a fork in the front and a cloth bag sewn with nylon cloth on his back.He told me the tricks of catching poisonous snakes: a two-fork three-step tail, no hesitation in raising the hand seven inches, loosen the spine, and tie it into a stick to carry it back.He said that venomous snakes usually live beside streams in valleys, and snakes can only be found in such places.Among all the snakes, the five-step snake is the most difficult to catch, because the pattern of the five-step snake is the same as that of the rock, and it cannot be found without careful identification.The five-step snake hibernates about a month later than other snakes. The five-step snake hibernates only in mid-November every year in the Gregorian calendar. During that time, the five-step snake moves slowly, which is the best time to catch it.

Because I was wearing a cloth bag that made snakes intimidated by the smell, Lao Gu asked me to walk more than ten meters behind him.Looking at the thin old Gu, I feel grateful. The ancients said that there are many ways to catch snakes. Different methods are used for different snakes. For the five-step snake, the fork pressure method is used; for the king cobra, the mask method is used; Fa... I was just about to ask about the specific operation steps of these methods, but Lao Gu suddenly shouted: "Don't move." Could it be that the poisonous snake appeared?I didn't dare to move, and looked around nervously.

Lao Gu leaned down, brushed aside the grass, and looked at the pile of feces on the ground.A few bird feathers were mixed in the thin yellow droppings.Lao Gu straightened his body and said, "The snake is nearby, so don't move." Lao Gu continued to search forward, tapping the grass tip with a fork. Suddenly, a poisonous snake sprang up from behind the stone covered by weeds. This is a real venomous snake with a triangular head. Lao Gu leaned his stick on his leg, quickly took off his undershirt, and shook it, the triangular head of the poisonous snake also shook along with the undershirt.With a sudden shake of his hand, Lao Gu threw his undershirt towards the poisonous snake, wrapping it around its head.The poisonous snake fell to the ground like a piece of leather tube, twisting blindly.Lao Gu picked up the stick and fork, grabbed the poisonous snake close to the head and neck at once, then pinched Qicun, lifted the snake up, and stroked it down from Qicun to the snake's tail with the other hand, the poisonous snake was immediately as docile as a noodle.This venomous snake is more than one meter long, and it looks heavy when lifted.Lao Gu put the poisonous snake into the cloth bag and smiled broadly.

I asked, "What kind of snake is this?" Old Gu said: "King Cobra." I was secretly shocked. When I was a child, I liked to read some animal books. I knew that the king cobra is the most irritable among snakes. It will attack at every turn, and it is extremely poisonous. I didn’t expect that Gu Gu would capture a huge spectacle so easily. king snake. The old man continued to move forward.He climbed over rocks, through caves, and climbed trees, with extraordinary agility, like an ape.I was out of breath walking behind, and every once in a while, he would wait for me in front.I said, "Don't worry about me, there is only one way into the mountain, and I won't get lost." Old Gu said, "You city people can't walk the mountain road, so I must wait for you."

There are a lot of small animals in the mountains, running to the road from time to time, running in front of me, and some hiding in the grass and poking around, like a villain with a dark heart.This animal has a long tail and beard, its head is always shaking restlessly, its sharp-mouthed monkey cheeks are restless.I don't know if it's a mouse or a field mouse, but it's just a disgusting rat stealer.According to Lao Gu, they feed on tree roots and grass roots, and they belong to a type of mouse. There were relatively few in the past few years, but now there are many. I saw some wild bamboo forests on the side of the road, the color became withered and yellow, and the roots were black.Why did the wild bamboo forest become like this?I couldn't figure it out at the time, and later, when I returned to this city in the south, I consulted a university professor of botany.He said that all species in nature are closely related and they form a food chain.There is a mysterious law of nature that maintains the balance of this food chain, and each animal has a relatively fixed amount.Therefore, the species in the whole nature will be endless, and all kinds of life will be multiplied.However, if the number of a certain animal suddenly decreases due to human destruction, the food chain will be broken, and the entire natural ecosystem will be affected, resulting in serious consequences.Because in the places where I visited the poaching gangs unannounced, the number of snakes, the natural enemies, will have the opportunity to breed a large number of rodents, rodents, diseases and insect pests will appear, wild bamboo forests and wild young forests will die, and humans will also suffer from their own consequences.

The natural world full of infinite mysteries is far more powerful than human beings.Human beings are just an insignificant chain in this ecological food chain. There is an interesting phenomenon in nature, the animals at the top of the food chain, they look graceful, concealed, with a lazy look, and seem calm, such as tigers, lions, eagles, and poisonous snakes.On the contrary, animals at the bottom of the food chain are always restless, out of their minds, fearful, and at a loss for what to do, such as mice or birds.In fact, the same is true for human beings. There is also a food chain among human beings. Those in the management class and successful people seem to be calm, neither arrogant nor impetuous, thoughtful, and amiable; , People who shut up "Oye" can only be at the bottom of this food chain forever.Without animals at the top of the food chain, rats will be rampant in nature, and there will be many crises.By the same token, when a society is full of vanity and utilitarianism, grandstanding is regarded as humor, opportunism is regarded as skill, stealing is regarded as ability, and moral order disappears, there will be a serious crisis in this society. That day, on the mountain road, we also met another snake catcher.His bag was empty, and he was envious of the fact that Goo was able to catch a huge king cobra.He said: "Where are all the snakes going now? Every time they come back empty-handed." After the snake catcher left, Lao Gu spat at his back.He said indignantly: "Where did all the snakes go? They were caught by you people. Now these dead cats and dogs are here to catch snakes. How many snakes can there be?" A self-proclaimed snake expert, he looks down on other snake catchers.And he believes that these snakes can only be caught by an expert like him. I asked Lao Gu: "Have you ever caught a five-step snake?" Lao Gu said: "When I was young, I often saw it in the mountains, but now it is too difficult to find. I haven't seen one in the past year." I know that there are very few five-step snakes in the Wuling Mountains, and they are almost caught by these snake catchers.I was worried that Lao Gu would still persevere in searching for the five-step snake, so I said: "Actually, the five-step snake is not full of treasures and priceless like the legends outside, it is just an ordinary poisonous snake." Old Gu said: "It's nonsense, a five-paced snake in the south costs hundreds of thousands of miles." Before I came here, I had inquired about the price of the five-pace snake. One was only a few hundred yuan, and hundreds of thousands of yuan was the price after the snake dealer smuggled the five-pace snake abroad.There is also a kind of poisonous snake called the iron head, which is more precious and rare. It can only be found in the mountains at the junction of the two lakes and Guangdong, and it is only found in this area in the world. It is said that there are only about a thousand wild iron heads left.Some snake dealers smuggled soldering iron tips abroad, and one piece cost several million yuan.It is precisely because of the huge profits of poisonous snake smuggling that lawbreakers take risks. I said, "The five-step snake isn't that expensive, it's all random guesswork by others." Old Gu pouted his neck and said, "Obviously it's the price, if there is no such price, then why do everyone say that?" I said, "People here don't know, they are just guessing wildly. If the price of five-step snakes can be so high, I will stay here to catch snakes." Old Gu asked: "If I caught a five-step snake, how much would you pay for it?" I hadn't even thought about buying his snakes before, I just wanted to see how he caught them.This group of people is extremely mysterious to people living in the city. I just want to understand their lives. I thought for a while and said, "200 yuan per kilogram." I was worried that he really caught a five-paced snake, the kind of poisonous snake written by Liu Zongyuan in the Tang Dynasty. If he really sold it to me, I couldn't afford it. so what should I do now?So I made the price very low on purpose. Unexpectedly, Lao Gu was angry, and he said angrily: "You can't even think about it at this price." Lao Gu is very stubborn and conceited, and every word he says cannot be refuted by others.He thinks that I set the price of the Five Step Snake so low just to take advantage of him. That day, we had a very unpleasant time. The suspicious and stubborn Gu thought I was a profiteer, so he was wary of me.Before that, he had always regarded me as his God of Wealth, a big boss who came to the mountains from the south to buy five-step snakes.Facing the change in his attitude before and after, I feel dumbfounded. Old Gu walked in front, and I followed behind.He would never wait for me in front again, I had to follow him hard.I was worried that the poisonous snake hiding in the grass would let him go and attack me who was following me.Although I have a medicine made from crushed realgar and garlic, I don't know if it works. When the sun rose above my head, I was a little hungry. Looking at my phone, it was almost 12 o'clock.I took out the pastries and drinks I brought from the city from my backpack, shouted to Gu Gu, and ran hard to deliver them to him.Lao Gu looked at the thing in my hand, his Adam's apple was shaking up and down, but he said: "Don't eat, don't eat, I don't like to eat." I said: "Eat it, it's okay, I still have some." I unzipped my backpack to show him. Lao Gu took my pastries, one bite after another, choking, his eyes staring like eggs.I quickly handed him the drink again.After he took two sips, his face finally returned to calm.He said: "The five-step snake is very expensive and worth a lot of money. You can't fool me about this." I felt very funny, but pretended to agree with what he said, nodded repeatedly and said: "Yes, it is very expensive. If you catch it, I will buy it." I thought, he might not catch it. "You don't want any other snakes?" he asked. I knew that he had already caught a king cobra, so I had to say: "I specialize in buying five-step snakes. I need to call the boss and ask about other snakes." Lao Gu lowered his head and stopped talking. We went home around two o'clock that afternoon.After running around for a long time, Lao Gu only caught one king cobra, which is already very good.It is said that many people in the village run empty every day. When I first met Lao Gu, I felt that he was honest and responsible, but after getting in touch with him, I realized that he was neither honest nor responsible. After returning home, in order to dispel Gu's suspicion, I offered to say that I would live in his house for a few days and give him fifty yuan for board and lodging every day.Lao Gu was very happy, with a smile in his nose and eyes. At night, Lao Gu held a miner's lamp and said that he was going to catch snakes. I asked, "It's dark outside, why are there snakes?" Old Gu said: "Night is a good time to catch krait and krait. Krait and krait are most afraid of strong light. As long as they shine on it, they will shrink into a ball immediately. They can directly use hands without tools. Grasp." It turns out that there are so many specialties in catching snakes, and different snakes have different catching methods. I said, "I'll follow you too." Old Gu gave me a flashlight with three batteries. The mountain road at night is extremely scary. Suddenly there will be inexplicable noises from the grass on both sides of the path. I don’t know what animals are running past.The night wind passed over the treetops, making a whirring sound, muddy and long, as if countless troops were sprinting.The mountains in the distance saw the night sky like sawtooth.The stars in the night sky blinked mysteriously.Although Lao Gu was walking in front of me, I was still afraid.I looked to both sides in fear, and always felt that there were countless pairs of poisonous snake eyes staring at me in the darkness, ready to attack at any time. A hissing sound came out of Gu Gu's mouth, he imitated the sound of a snake to attract poisonous snakes.On a night like this, it sounded creepy.Despite the fear in my heart, I still tried to keep a distance from him. I was worried that his cry would really attract poisonous snakes.In such a dark night, poisonous snakes attack people with a hundred shots. That night, Lao Gu was busy until midnight, but still got nothing.He had to go home feeling disappointed. On the way home, he was downcast and seldom said a word.In the dim light of the sky, his thin body looked vague and unreal like a paper-cut.I followed him, looking back from time to time, worried that some kind of animal might be following me. After turning a corner, I finally saw the lights of the village. I let out a long breath, stopped, and wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.Suddenly, there was a chill on my back, and a snake fell into my clothes. I slumped on the ground, and the flashlight fell to the ground.I subconsciously yelled: "Ah, ah..." Because of the extreme fear, the tone of my voice changed. Lao Gu rushed over in three steps and two steps, and the light from the miner's lamp made me unable to open my eyes.He asked, "What's the matter? What's the matter?" My pores all over my body tightened and my hair stood on end.I said in a trembling voice, "Snake, snake." Old Gu asked: "Where? Where?" His voice was anxious. I said in horror: "In my clothes." I really felt it, and the snake was still wriggling on my back. Old Gu quickly turned around behind me, and he said, "Where is it?" Then, he tore off my clothes, took off a centipede that was one span long from my body, and crushed it with one foot. . I looked at the centipede on the ground, still in panic.Old Gu smiled easily and said, "Where is it so easy to see a snake? I can't find it when I look for it. If it is a snake, I will get rich tonight." He only has money in his eyes.He doesn't know ecological balance, life and danger. For him, snakes are wealth, and catching snakes is his way to get rich. That night, I stayed up all night and broke out in cold sweat over and over again.When I thought of that centipede that was as long as a shank, that ferocious-looking centipede with long legs climbing up and down my body, my hair stood on end. The rooster crowed for the first time, but I still didn't feel sleepy. I got up, lit a cigarette, stood on the stilted building, and looked east.I saw a gleam of light in the dark sky on the mountains in the distance, and the sky was full of stars, flickering uncertainly.Venus is big and bright, like a jewel inlaid in the sky. The rooster crowed twice, and there were only a few crumbling stars left in the sky.In the hazy sky, the veil-like morning mist floats.The sound of insects has subsided, the village has sporadic lights, and the hardworking mountain people are ready to get up and work. The rooster crowed three times, the sky became brighter, and the mountains in the distance and the village road nearby could be seen clearly.There were a few loose clouds floating in the sky, and a ray of sunlight rose up, coating the clouds with a layer of gold.The mountain people who got up early went to work in the fields, and the cows walked slowly in front, seeming very unhappy; Thereafter, there was no more crowing, and the rooster had finished its work for the day. At that moment, I suddenly thought that being a human being in this life is really tiring. If there is a next life, I must be a rooster in the next life. I only go to work for a few minutes a day, and I can make as many crows as I want. If I am not happy, I will not crow; Time, travel with hens, go wherever you want... After dawn, I felt drowsy. After lying in bed and sleeping for a while, I was awakened by the sound of firecrackers.Standing at the window, I saw someone getting married in the village. Several young people, in groups of two, carried the dowry, and the most valuable dowry was a TV set.A group of children happily chased behind to watch the excitement.I remembered a scene I wrote in "Unannounced Visits to Fake Cigarette Dens". At that time, I made an unannounced visit to the countryside in southern Fujian and saw that the dowry given by the counterfeit cigarette owner to his daughter was a luxury house and a famous car.There was a sudden soreness in my heart. Old Gu's voice sounded downstairs, he said that he would go into the mountain today.Lao Gu regarded snake hunting as his main business, and handed over all the crops in the field to his wife. After eating, we set off again.This time, I took another path into the mountain. Walking along the stream, the road is winding.Lao Gu is like a dog looking for the way. Every time he walks a certain distance, he will stick up his buttocks and check in the grass to see if there are poisonous snake feces, snake sloughs, and poisonous snake caves. The old man said that if there are hairs and bird feathers in the feces, it means that there are poisonous snakes nearby; if there are snake sloughs, it means that there are poisonous snakes nearby.Each animal has its own activity area. The activity area of ​​wolves is generally a circle with a radius of 50 kilometers, that of rats is two to three hundred meters, and that of poisonous snakes is more than 100 meters.Earlier, before there were no cars, humans who walked on two legs also had their own radius of action.Any animal, if it exceeds this radius of activity, will get lost, panic, and be afraid. Lao Gu, who has decades of hunting experience, is really an expert. I praised him a few words, and Lao Gu was in high spirits.However, in modern society, having more hunting experience will only cause more damage to the natural world.The hunting skills that human beings possessed in ancient times have come to an end in modern civilized society; human beings have been able to obtain food more easily from wider channels, and no longer rely on hunting.Modern hunting, which can only be called poaching, is to plunder nature and plunder natural resources for profiteering. Old Goo wants me to buy his king cobra.He's been selling me the King Cobra the whole way.He said that king cobras are in great demand in the south, and many businessmen who collect snakes come to them to buy king cobras: "Where are there still five-paced snakes now?" Old Gu was talking, but suddenly stopped talking.He pointed to a small hole a few meters ahead and said, "This is the snake hole." I saw that there was no difference between the hole and the surrounding holes, they were all the thickness of the bottom of a bowl, and the inside was pitch black, I don't know how deep it was.If you want to say that it is different, the only difference is that this hole is under a tomb, and this hole may have been connected to the tomb.The tomb is as tall as a person, and it is covered with luxuriant grass. I asked suspiciously, "How do you know this is the snake cave?" Old Gu said: "Look at this hole is very smooth. Snakes go in and out of it every day. The other holes are piercing and pulling. It is obviously a hollow. There are snakes in this hole." Lao Gu stretched his five fingers apart and flicked in the surrounding grass, and he pulled out a handful of weeds; he flicked and flicked again, and he pulled out another handful of weeds.He piled wild grass at the entrance of the cave, lit it, and then took off his clothes and fanned the wind into the cave.After a while, there was light smoke coming out of a small hole more than ten meters away from the tomb. Lao Gu rushed over "with lightning speed", grabbed handfuls of soil, and blocked the hole. Old Gu said that poisonous snakes are very cunning, and their holes usually have several entrances and exits. A pile of firewood was burnt out, and the poisonous snake hadn't come out yet, so Lao Gu moved the ashes aside.He said that if the poisonous snake came out suddenly, it would be burned to death if it was not removed.Nobody wants a dead snake. Lao Gu asked me to watch the entrance of the cave, and watch out for the poisonous snake suddenly jumping out.He went a few steps away to redraw a pile of firewood and put it at the entrance of the cave.Then, he took out the water bottle, poured out a little water, and made a pile of puree.Leave half of the hole paste.I asked what it was for, and Gu Gu said slyly, "You'll know in a while." Lao Gu continued to fan the wind and light the fire.The firelight reflected his focused face, and he was very absorbed. Suddenly, a snake sprang out of the hole, and the half-pasted hole was washed away, and the head was covered with mud.Its head swayed from side to side, ignorant, Lao Gu stretched out his hand, and lightly pinched its "seven inches". However, this snake was too small, which made Lao Gu very dissatisfied.Old Gu said: "It's obviously a big hole, why is there only one small snake. The big snake must have been caught." He is sorry. Old Gu said that this snake was a golden krait.