This thatched house in the woods seems to have been built a long time ago.
The wooden door frame was stained with mold and rotten, and there were a few fungus growing in the corners.
There was obviously candlelight just now, but no one answered after calling twice.
I slowly looked in through the crack in the door.
There were several large pottery jars on the floor inside the house, and a broken porcelain bowl was placed on the table, with a pair of chopsticks leaning on the edge of the bowl. It seemed that someone was eating just now.
"No one? Did you go out to relieve yourself?"
I was just about to look away, but at this moment...
Inside the crack of the door, a yellow eye suddenly appeared, staring at me coldly!
When I was too close, my pupils showed a vertical line, staring at me motionlessly, like the eyes of a poisonous snake!
I was startled, turned on my flashlight and shined a light on the door, gasped and shouted: "I was passing by! I mean no harm! I'm looking for someone!"
At this time, the candlelight in the thatched house suddenly went out.
In addition to the whistling wind, there seemed to be a "hiss...hiss" sound mixed in, and it seemed that there were many snakes spitting messages.
Listening to the hissing sound, I held a flashlight in one hand and a bamboo pole in the other, and swallowed twice subconsciously.
A minute or two passed.
The broken wooden door of the hut opened by itself with a creak.
"anyone there?"
I shouted in the air but got no response, so I gritted my teeth and entered the house. After working so hard to find this place, I had to go in and take a look. There must be someone in the house, otherwise the door would not open by itself.
Carrying the bag, I walked carefully into the house.
It's very cool and humid here.
I felt something behind me, so I turned my head sharply!
It was an old lady with disheveled hair. She stood there motionless with bare feet and her head lowered.
"Hello, aunt..."
"You, are you the Zhanghu snake girl?"
This is a human being. I kept telling myself not to be afraid, but I still stuttered when I spoke.
I shined my flashlight into her face.
The next second, the old lady slowly raised her head.
Her face was as white as a piece of paper, her eyeballs were cloudy and dark yellow, and there were a large number of age spots on her forehead. I don’t know if it was because of being angry. The corners of her mouth were all rotten, and there was yellow water, which was very serious.
Angular cheilitis.
I realized it was impolite to shine the flashlight on someone's face like this, so I quickly moved the flashlight away.
The white-faced old lady raised her head and her dark yellow eyes moved.
She stared at me, suddenly stuck out her tongue, and licked the corners of her mouth from left to right.
No wonder it's so serious, maybe it's because she keeps licking the corners of her mouth.
The old lady finally spoke, her voice sounding leaky and unpleasant.
"What are you doing with my daughter?"
Just make sure it's a person in front of you, but I'm afraid it's not a human. Before I came here, I fantasized about whether the snake girl living in the hut had a human head and a snake body, with a forked tongue, and could be wrapped around a tree and look down.
I swallowed and asked, "Your daughter? I came to see the snake girl from the Zhanghu Snake King Temple? Aren't you, aunt?"
"Heh...heh...you call me aunt...I am only 37 years old this year."
"37??"
The messy hair is white and withered and dull, there are a lot of age spots on the face, the skin on the bare feet and the back of the hands is like tree bark, is this 37? No one can say that he is 37 years old...
Are the rumors among the villagers in Zhanghu Town true?
Snake girls are said to be short-lived, and none live past the age of 40.
Hearing is false, seeing is believing. I thought to myself, do all Zhanghu snake women have some physical problems? It's like hereditary progeria or something.
She asked me in a hoarse voice: "Have you brought anything?"
"Bring it, bring it."
I quickly said: "I brought apples and oranges in my bag."
This is what Lao Zhao told me. He said that someone was bitten by a very venomous snake in the past. It was a highly venomous snake that even big hospitals did not have serum. The family carried it on their backs and went into the mountains overnight to find the snake girl and gave them some fruit.
, pork or other tributes, and then the snake girl can help cure it.
Lao Zhao also said that he was not sure whether it was true or not, but that was what he said anyway, so before I came, I bought oranges and apples and put them in my bag.
"Give it to me." The old lady slowly stretched out her hands.
I quickly opened the zipper of my backpack, took out two oranges and an apple, and put them in her hands.
I thought she would eat it, but unexpectedly, the next second, she was holding oranges and apples in both hands, limping to the corner of the hut.
She held the fruit in her arms and struck a match with her other hand, trying to light a candle.
I tried striking it many times and it didn't strike. Maybe it was too humid in the room and the match got wet.
I walked over quickly, took out my lighter and lit the candle.
There was candlelight in the room, making it much brighter.
The old lady lowered her head and looked at the lighter in my hand without saying a word.
I also looked down, looked up and said to her: "Zippo, this is a zippo, a windproof lighter."
She looked at it for a few seconds, and suddenly she made a strange sound in her throat.
"Hoo...poof..."
She spit out a thick mouthful of phlegm, with some red blood streaks in it, and she spat on my hand without any bias.
It was so disgusting that the back of my hand and the lighter were covered in phlegm. I quickly threw the lighter away and wiped my hands.
Seeing me throwing it away, she picked up the lighter and put it directly into her pocket.
"Daughter, daughter."
"Wake up, someone is here to pay tribute."
After shouting a few words, there was a sudden reaction.
The large jar covered with a lid in the corner opened by itself, and a thin arm slowly stretched out from the jar, touched the orange, and then retracted it.
Half a minute later, another hand reached out from the jar and took away the remaining apples.
I was stunned.
The villagers' rumors were not groundless. They really lived in a jar. The jar was very big and had a big mouth, like a small water tank.
After the oranges and apples were gone, the hand in the jar stretched out again to ask for something.
The old lady turned to me and said, "That's not enough. Do you have anything else?"
I said there were a few oranges left in the bag.
The old lady shook her head: "No oranges."
"Don't want oranges? What do you want? Money?"
She pointed at my bag and said, "Open it and see what my daughter wants."
I came out tonight and had no intention of going back. Even Brother Dou Sprout and Fish didn't know about this. It can be said that all my belongings are in the bag.
In front of me, the old lady dragged my bag and opened it.
She dragged her bag with both hands and squatted in front of the small water tank.
The hand slowly stretched out from the jar, groping for the contents of the bag, turning it over and over.
In my bag I have a spare mobile phone, a charger, a pair of pants and shoes, bagged bread, a map, a few copper coins in a ziplock bag, Mr. Wu’s notes in the mezzanine, and an embroidered sachet given by an old Miao girl.
wait....
The skinny hand paused for a few seconds after touching the sachet, but the next second, he threw the sachet away and grabbed a small white porcelain incense stick.
He opened the incense box with a flick of his fingernail, took the elixir in the box, and then quickly retracted it.
This is an old elixir belonging to Chen Meiqing, a female Taoist in the late Qing Dynasty. It was found in an underground cave in Guizailing. I have researched it, but I have no idea what the elixir is.
"This...where did you find it?"
There were voices coming from the jar. Just by listening to the voices, they sounded young.
"I picked it up. You can take it if you want." I said.
The girl in the jar was silent for two minutes and then said, "What do you want from me?"
I asked directly: "About three and a half months ago, did two men come to see you? Maybe they were asking you for medical treatment. One of them was in a wheelchair."
"yes."
The response in the jar was very crisp.
I asked anxiously: "What happened next? Can you cure the man in the wheelchair?"
