The four-legged snake is an ugly name given by the locals in Changqing, because its cubs look similar to the four-legged snakes in the mountains. Everyone calls it the four-legged snake, also called the water four-legged snake.
This thing is the familiar giant salamander, whose scientific name is giant salamander.
Why are they called giant salamanders? Because most of them live in shallow water areas and often hunt in the water. Their calls in the water, refracted by the water surface, are very similar to crying babies, so they are called giant salamanders.
People of Zhang An's generation can no longer hear it. When Zhang Jianguo's generation was young, such sounds were often heard in the mountains. They were very frequent. At that time, no one knew it was this thing.
So the old people say that there are leprous in the mountains that eat people, and they have captured someone's children.
But actually, it was because there were so many giant salamanders in the mountains at that time, and you could basically find some small ones in the mountains.
Of course, most people usually hide in caves with water, inside caves, or in streams in mountains.
Later, this thing was slowly discovered by everyone, and everyone realized that it was this guy who made the cry-like sound of the baby in the mountains.
And because people's living conditions were so poor at that time, it began to enter the dining tables of mountain people.
So from then on, their number gradually decreased, until later, some wealthy people in the city became superstitious about this stuff.
If there is no buying and selling, there will be no harm. If someone buys, someone will catch them, so there are even fewer of them. Later, they were included in the national list.
But even so, many people will still go poaching.
In their words, the boss offered too much and they couldn't refuse.
Since the people in the mountains discovered that it was close to it, many adults also used this saying to scare their disobedient and crying children.
Don't tell me, this method is more effective than coaxing them with nice words. Zhang An was frightened by Wang Fang when he was young.
What kind of leopards, leopards, wolves, old people carrying babies, and old ladies are scared every time they cry.
There are three species of giant salamanders in the world. Among them, our domestic species are the largest and can grow up to about 1.8 to 2 meters in length, which is taller than most people.
Although everyone calls it a giant salamander, it is not a fish, but an authentic amphibian.
The body shape is long and flat, the limbs are very short, the forelimbs have four toes, the hind limbs have five toes, there are webs between the toes, and a short and flat tail. Those who don’t know may mistakenly think that it is a fish, but it is actually an amphibian. It uses gills to breathe in the water and lungs outside the water.
The skin breathes, and the skin is only covered with mucous membranes and no scales.
"Brother Jianguo, no matter what happened to it, you can catch it for several meals. Such a big four-legged snake is not easy to see even before. If you take it, you can't even finish it."
"
Everyone in the mountains has eaten this stuff before, especially people of Zhang Jianguo's generation.
After Wang Xinrong finished speaking, he walked over and picked up the giant salamander with both hands.
"Oh, it's so heavy, at least thirty kilograms, maybe a little more."
Zhang An shook his head, he could eat this stuff before, but now he can't.
"Uncle Xinrong, you can't eat this guy now, otherwise you will have to eat national food."
"What do you mean, what does eating national food mean?" When Wang Xinrong heard this, his mind was a little confused. He couldn't quite understand what Zhang An said.
"Eating the national meal means going to jail, and you will be sent to a labor camp. If you eat it, you will have to go in and sing Tears Behind Bars. But I remember that Uncle Xinrong sang Tears Behind Bars very nicely."
"You, this kid, know how to joke with your Uncle Xinrong. You are not a child at all."
Zhang An could only chuckle when Zhang Jianguo said this.
Then Zhang An remembered that there is no such thing as eating national food and using a sewing machine, but everyone still knows about making paradise umbrellas.
"This guy is now a nationally protected animal. It seems to have been on the list a few years ago. If you eat it, you will have to live in it for a few years at least. The country will provide you with free meals."
When it comes to going to jail, these people are scared.
"What is this thing? If you eat this thing, you will go to jail now?"
Zhang An's words shocked Wang Xinrong, and he quickly threw the giant salamander in his hand into the ditch.
This fright was no less frightening than the cry of the four-legged snake just now.
Not only Wang Xinrong was frightened, but even the giant salamander that had just been caught by it was also frightened and screamed.
Who the hell doesn't follow martial ethics? Pick me up gently and drop me high, right? It's not that you won't feel pain after being hit, right?
"Then what should we do if we eat so much before? We won't get caught, right?"
"That's not true. I didn't care about what you ate before, but you can't eat it in the future. Otherwise, you may not only go to jail, but also be fined."
Hearing Zhang An say that what he had eaten before did not count, the group of people who gathered around to watch the excitement relaxed.
Otherwise, every one of these people has a criminal record and no one can escape.
"Then what should I do with this thing now? It can't be left here all the time. It keeps being called weird and scary at night."
It can't move, it's scary at night, and it's very tricky to hold on to.
"This four-legged snake is very sensitive to the environment. It will not come to a place with poor water quality. Coming here shows that the environment in our village is very good.
I guess it has crawled into the village a long time ago, but maybe the smoke from burning buns in our village was too thick for it, which is why it screamed strangely, otherwise I haven't heard it in the past few days."
Zhang An thought for a while, and then told everyone his guess.
"So, it's quite scary to put it here. Why don't you put it in the river and let it go wherever it wants to go?"
No one wants to keep such a hot potato around. This thing is like a Bodhisattva now. If anything happens, it will cause trouble for nothing.
"It's not a good idea to leave this indiscriminately. If other people in the village who don't know about it see it, and they are caught stewing it in a pot at home, then the joke will be on. I think it's better to leave it in Zhang An's fish pond.
Inform the people in the town to take it away tomorrow."
It's not like you caught it yourself in the village, you can just take it home quietly and eat it. Even if you don't know it, it doesn't matter if you catch it by mistake.
There are too many ventilated walls in the countryside. You may think that what you are doing is airtight, but in fact, someone has already known about it.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many examples in the remote mountains in future generations.
Although most people have no grudges or hatred, they will not take the initiative to report you without any big benefits.
But there are some people who are just arrogant. They know that this is the case with you, so they keep it in mind, and then they quietly file a lawsuit against you later. Moreover, most of the people accused like this were arrested by mistake and were not deliberately chopped.
of.
Of course, you can't say anything about others, after all, they actively help the country protect wild animals.
Zhang An rolled his eyes when he heard they said they should put it in the fish pond in his yard.
"You really know how to make bad ideas. This thing eats meat. If you put it in so big, the fish in my fish pond will not suffer."
"This is not simple. The fish pond over there at your new house hasn't been stocked with fish yet. Just put it over there. There are no people there, and there are no paper-burning cigarettes. I will give it to the town tomorrow morning.
Call and ask them to come and take you away."
Zhang Jianwen originally cooked buns in front of his home. Their home was relatively far away and he didn't hear the cry of the giant salamander.
When I was about to go out to place incense, I saw so many people gathered around me, so I also gathered around.
Zhang An finally thought about it and decided that this was all he could do.
If Zhang An hadn't said it today, everyone probably wouldn't have known that this stuff is now inedible.
After everyone dispersed, Zhang An grabbed it and walked towards the new house.
This dog kept struggling, swaying its head and tail.
Zhang An was very careful when catching it. This guy's teeth were no joke.
Moreover, its attack power is very fierce. It is said that in ancient times, the crocodile's death roll was learned from it.
But in the end, Zhang An didn't put it into the fish pond, but threw it into the space. There were many fish in the space, so it could mess with it as it pleased.
It was fate that Zhang An met this big guy, so he let him enjoy the pleasure of being full in the space.
If you put it directly into the fish pond, it will be difficult to find this thing by then.
After entering the space, Zhang An took a closer look. There were actually some mixed red, yellow and brown spots on the back of this big guy, which was quite rare.
Although other giant salamanders have some tiny spots on their bodies, they are not so big.
The spots on my body have always been bigger than copper coins.
After climbing into the space fish pond, this thing timidly observed the situation in the fish pond for a long time. After calming down, it suddenly became fierce and began to prey on the fish in the fish pond.
When Zhang An saw the way this guy was rising, he was worthy of being the overlord of shallow water. It looked like he could have a good meal now.
The fish in the fish pond: "Yes, yes, you are noble, you are great, why did you let this guy into our house, I **** you***."
Every household has a lot of burdens, and it will take a long time to burn them all. The whole village is now filled with smoke, and it really has that atmosphere.
After burning the baggage, the calculation is not finished yet, because we still have to send our ancestors off.
After burning the paper money tonight, the ancestors who have been invited to worship at home should be sent out, and the tablets for worship at home should also be put away.
It is also very simple to say farewell to the ancestors. Take out a lot of incense sticks and light them. Walk a few steps from the door of your home to the back of the village or towards their tombs and insert a burning incense stick. Keep the incense sticks in your hands.
After all, it can be regarded as leading the way for them.
Changqing Village is quite special because there are mostly paddy fields near the village.
A long time ago, before an old man died, he used the time of reflection to tell his descendants not to bury him in a nearby fertile field.
If you have your heart, you can bury him on a distant mountain and visit him on the 15th day of the Qingming Festival.
Because the fertile farmland in the village is the lifeblood of everyone, if he is buried in the field, his family's descendants will have less food than other families. When the time comes, there will be too many people to eat, and he will be able to live in peace after he is gone.
After that, when the old people in the village passed away, they were buried in the mountains far away.
It's just that this is a bit of a test for our descendants. Some people in later generations are unwilling to visit the grave because they think it's too far away and too troublesome.
This has become an unwritten custom in Changqing, so there is not a single tomb in this part of the village.
Unlike other villages, they are everywhere from the entrance to the back of the village.
There are many children in the village who like to put incense sticks, and we walk along the road side by side to stick incense sticks.
But the children who go to place incense will not play or chatter on the road tonight.
Because the adults in the family have said hello, they can only put their own incense, and they are not allowed to talk nonsense. After the incense is done, they come back by themselves, otherwise they will be beaten.
This is considered a taboo, and the children are also worried about being scolded, so they just go home after doing it honestly.
For people who don’t have children at home, it’s up to the adults to do it.
Moreover, many people may not understand that rural people usually have poor food and clothing and don’t have much money. If you ask them to eat well and dress well, they will say that they need to save money. If they can live, then forget it.
But on days like Qingming Festival, I spend a lot of money on deceased elderly people in my family, and I don’t feel bad at all.
This is because some people do this to pray for the blessings of their ancestors.
Another reason is to miss those who have passed away in the family, such as the old man in the village whose son died in a mining accident. He was worried that his son would not have a good life down there, so he not only burned buns, but also made some paper clothes.
The shoes were burned.
How pitiful the hearts of parents in the world are.
For now, everyone still follows their original intention in carrying out such sacrificial activities, but in the next few decades, it will change.
Some people really want to compare even with this, and the poorer they are, the more they want to compare.
When I see other people’s homes burning a lot, I have to grit my teeth and burn more than theirs. If I can’t compare, I can’t let the elderly people below me fail.
There are also people who did not treat the elderly family members that well when they were still alive, or even ignored them. But after the elderly people passed away, they did amazing things in this regard.
It seems that he wants to show others that he is really filial.
But as everyone knows, everyone has a strong sense in their hearts. If they really want to be so filial, why not treat them better when they are alive?
Of course, most people just know this in their own minds.
Early the next morning, every household was already up and cleaning the ashes piled in front of the door from last night's burning buns.
The roadbed on the roadside in the village is covered with densely packed incense sticks, and there are also a few unburned incense sticks.
If in future generations such large amounts of paper money were burned, experts would definitely recommend banning it.
Because they will say that burning such a large amount of paper money causes too serious pollution to the atmosphere, and it also pollutes the air and damages the environment.
Zhang An was cleaning the entrance of the courtyard with Zhang Jianguo, when old uncle Zhang Jianwen came over.
"Zhang An, I called the town, but they are unsure. I have already called the county forestry department. They will send someone over at noon. Is the four-legged snake not running away?"
After the old village chief finished talking to Zhang An, he asked another question.
He was quite worried that when people came later, if the four-legged snake escaped, it would be said that they had hidden him.
"No, uncle, I'll put a fishing net on it so it can't run away."
After Zhang An got up early in the morning, he had already taken it out of the space and put it away.
"Why use fishing nets? Just put it directly into the pond."
"Then when people come to look for it, I have to drain the water in the pond to find it. It's too troublesome."