Chapter 43: Dug-Up Snake Swarm

For lunch we had meat-loaded douhua, a Sichuan specialty dish made by simmering soft tofu pudding with pickled vegetables, mushrooms, and sliced meat in a soup. My father had prepared the douhua early in the morning. It was originally meant for Old Man Jiang because he loved the douhua from our home. Who would have thought he left early in the morning? So my father simply turned it into a meat-loaded version for me instead, since I especially loved meat.

The meat-loaded douhua was extremely delicious. With farm-made ciba chili paste, the smooth tofu pudding became fiery hot but incredibly fragrant. I could not stop eating. I finished two big bowls of rice and drank three bowls of soup before I finally felt satisfied.

After putting down my chopsticks, I went to check on my mother. She was recovering quite well. My father had specially stewed some chicken soup for her to nourish her body. My sister and I were more sensible now, so we no longer acted like children begging for chicken meat.

I obediently leaned beside my mother. After she finished the chicken soup, I simply curled into her arms and acted spoiled.

“Old Chen, this is good now. Second girl’s problem is resolved, the child is fine, and Third Child can stay with us until he is fifteen. My heart feels at ease now,” my mother said. Although her body was still weak, her complexion was much better. Compared to a few days ago, it was like night and day.

“That is good. I think our Third Child has a great future. I always feel Master Jiang is not an ordinary person,” my father said as he pulled my mother closer, letting me roll around on her while they talked.

“How is he not ordinary?” my mother clearly did not think much about it.

My father glanced at me but did not answer. At that moment, Su Rou’s voice rang out from our courtyard gate.

That kid Su Rou was loyal. Ever since what happened to my second sister, many villagers had consciously or unconsciously avoided coming to our house. Even though they had come quietly at first to offer suggestions, fear still held them back.

Only Su Rou kept coming, not even caring about his mother’s worries, running to my house every couple of days to play with me.

I put on my shoes and ran out quickly. During the past days, because of my second sister’s situation, I had no mood to play. Whenever Su Rou came, I only dealt with him casually. Today, I definitely wanted to have a good time with him.

Seeing me run out full of energy, Su Rou was startled. A few days ago, which day had I not looked completely worn out?

“Your second sister is okay now?” Su Rou really was my best friend. He understood me very well.

I patted the fat on his belly and said, “She is fine, completely fine. So, where should we go play this time? How about we go steal Liu Chunyan’s chicken and eat it?”

Now that my second sister’s issue was resolved, I immediately thought of my old grudge with Liu Chunyan and came up with a bad idea.

“Not today. We are going to the market town later. I have good news. Also, why did you not go to school yesterday?” Su Rou clearly did not want to steal chickens today and instead brought up the market town, casually asking why I had skipped school.

I almost blurted out that I had been helping my master, but I held it back. The reason was simple. In Su Rou’s eyes, I had always been some heroic Red Army-type figure. If I suddenly turned into a Daoist disciple, it would ruin my image. So I just laughed it off.

Instead, I became interested in what he called good news and asked, “What good news in the market town? Tell me now, or I will use torture on you.”

“Hey, listen. They are cutting bamboo in the market town. This morning I went there with my mother,” Su Rou quickly said.

“Come on, I thought it was something big. Cutting bamboo is nothing special. There is a small bamboo grove right ahead. I will get you a knife, you go cut some. Seriously, just say it directly. Do you want to go steal Liu Chunyan’s chicken with me or not?” I dismissed his so-called good news.

“Hey, let me finish. It is not cutting one or two bamboo stalks. It is an entire bamboo forest. No one knows what is going on. They are even giving work points for cutting bamboo. That is not the strange part. The strange part is there are a lot of snakes in that bamboo forest,” Su Rou said nonstop.

“Snakes? It would be strange if a bamboo forest had no snakes,” I said loudly. Which rural kid had never seen snakes? Everyone knew bamboo groves were cool and damp places where snakes usually lived. But for some reason, I felt a strange uneasiness. I suddenly thought of that bamboo forest I had been in that night.

“You are too impatient. Snakes are not unusual, but many people even want to catch them and take them home to eat. The officials at the market town stopped them. I even heard the People’s Liberation Army came. And I also heard…” Su Rou suddenly lowered his voice.

The mention of the army already stirred my curiosity, but hearing there was more, I quickly asked, “What?”

“I heard there is a huge snake. A really huge one. They are digging up the entire bamboo grove, including the roots. Somehow there is a giant snake underground. The snake’s head is said to be as big as a winnowing basket,” Su Rou gestured as he spoke.

My expression turned unpleasant, but I still said, “You are exaggerating. Did you even see it?”

“I did not see it, hehe…” Su Rou scratched the back of his head and laughed. The fat on his face squeezed his eyes into slits, making him look honest and simple, but then he continued, “But the people digging bamboo said so. Now the whole market town is talking about it. Anyway, the snake head came out first, and several officials and soldiers saw it. They immediately drove everyone away and said they would let people in later.”

I was now eighty or ninety percent convinced. Su Rou usually talked nonsense, but he would not deliberately fool me. I finally asked what I had always wanted to know.

“Su Rou, which bamboo forest in the market town are you talking about?”

“Oh, that bamboo forest is said to be next to a graveyard. Nobody usually goes there. Good thing no one goes there, otherwise they might get swallowed by that big snake. Let me tell you…” Su Rou kept talking rapidly, but the moment I heard that location, my heart started pounding.

A big snake.

A few days ago I not only encountered a ghost, I also slept on top of a giant snake. Damn it, was I just lucky, or what?

“Third Child, Third Child…” Su Rou kept calling me when he saw I was distracted.

“What?” I snapped back to reality and pretended nothing was wrong.

“Did you hear me? They even dug out a stone gate near the graveyard area,” Su Rou said very seriously.

I realized I had missed something important while spacing out. I immediately said, “You just want me to go with you to watch the excitement, right? Fine, let us go now.”

“Alright, I even brought dry rations,” Su Rou said excitedly, his fat body trembling.

“What dry rations?” I became interested the moment I heard food.

“Look,” Su Rou said, pulling out a cloth bag. Inside were mashed boiled potatoes squeezed into a lump by his fat.

“Forget it, you eat it.” I had no interest in those misshapen potatoes. I went back inside to tell my parents and then left.

Su Rou and I ran all the way without feeling the distance. Around two in the afternoon, we reached the market town. But strangely, the usually lively place was very quiet today.

“See, I told you I was right. Everyone in the market town has gone to the bamboo forest,” Su Rou said proudly.

“Mm,” I replied absentmindedly, my mind already elsewhere.

“But how do we get to that bamboo forest? Third Child, do you know?” Su Rou asked, as usual relying on me when he had no idea.

“How do we get there? Just follow me. I know the way,” I said casually. Only after speaking did I realize I had slipped up.

“Third Child, how do you know?” Su Rou immediately asked.

He was my best friend, and I did not really want to lie to him. After hesitating for a while, I asked, “Su Rou, we are brothers, right?”

“Nonsense. Our relationship is like Dong Cunrui and Huang Jiguang!” Su Rou slapped his chest loudly.

“What kind of relationship is that?” I had never heard that comparison before.

“They are both war heroes! Of course heroes are the same kind of people!” Su Rou said confidently.

Fine, another nonsense expert. I gave up arguing and said seriously, “Su Rou, do you believe there are ghosts in this world?”

Su Rou was startled by my seriousness. After a long pause, he said, “I did not believe before, but now… I kind of believe. It is because of your second sister’s case, right? I…”

He spoke carefully, afraid of upsetting me. After all, in those days, even rural children who had seen strange things could not openly talk about superstition.

“My second sister was possessed by a ghost. I went to the bamboo forest you mentioned because of it. Do you trust me or not?” I asked.

“You have seen it?” Su Rou looked terrified.

“Mm, I have seen it,” I said calmly. After seeing so much, I no longer felt much fear, especially with my master protecting me.

“What did it look like?” Su Rou’s face was already pale.

“It was just like that. Not some green-faced, fanged monster,” I said lightly, not wanting to scare him.

Su Rou let out a long breath and patted his chest, still shaken, then asked, “Third Child, what really happened? Can you tell me?”

I instinctively felt I could not go into details, so I said, “Anyway, I just found someone to help drive the ghost away. Nothing complicated. My second sister is fine now, but you must keep it a secret.”

“I will definitely keep it secret. I will not tell anyone,” Su Rou immediately agreed. As a rural child, he was familiar with stories of spirit exorcism.

I trusted him completely. He would keep it secret unless someone tempted him with food, but his parents would never ask him about it, and they would not use food to pry either.