Chapter 45 Snake Chaser

After finally reaching the platform, I found several people standing there. Except for two of them, I didn’t know the rest, but I had seen them before, they were the lazy soldiers in the courtyard.

The two I hadn’t seen before were an old man and a young man. The old man was wearing a gray tunic with a buttoned front, and the clothes were a bit worn, with patches on them. He was smoking a pipe very quietly, frowning and not knowing what to think.

As for the younger one, he was dressed quite normally, in a set of yellow military fatigues that had been washed until they were pale, with a crumpled military cap on his head. He was puffing on a small, emerald-green bamboo flute, but I guess his technique was so bad that the flute didn’t even make a sound.

I didn’t even bother to despise him. I thought to myself, my third son can make a bamboo whistle out of a bamboo leaf and it sounds so loud.

When I looked back at the expression on the meat, I guessed that the kid was thinking the same thing.

At this time, the snake group became a little agitated. I looked back and saw that it was the person who had just brought me a message to the master. I saw that everyone’s expressions didn’t seem to care, so I didn’t care either. I pulled my master and asked, “Master, why are you here?”

“Nonsense, I definitely have to be here. Last time I found out that this place is a gathering place for evil spirits. If it is allowed to continue for a few more decades, I am afraid that the entire town will be affected. I don’t see it, but I can’t ignore it when I see it.” My master’s neck stiffened, as if he was annoyed that I asked such a stupid question.

The crispy meat next to him looked confused. Born in the new China and raised under the red flag, even if he believed in ghosts, he would never accept the idea of a gathering place for ghosts and the difficulty of maintaining a human presence for a long time.

I was quick to respond, asking, “Master, so you were the one who made all that noise?”

“Ah, is there a problem?” Old Jiang put his hands in his sleeves and looked smug, probably waiting for me to praise him. He was like that, and he cared a lot about the praise of children.

But I frowned and looked worried, as if I were very worried about him.

“Sanwa, what’s wrong with you?” Instead of receiving praise, the old man saw me worried.

“Master, I know that you want to help the people in the village, but what should we do now? You lied to them and said that they would get work points, but what if there are no work points? Work points can be exchanged for food, so how are we going to pay them back?” I heard him worry. I was born in the countryside and know too well the importance of work points. It’s not surprising that I could think of this!

As soon as I finished speaking, everyone on the platform began to laugh, even the old man who was smoking a pipe and looking serious.

As for the young man playing the bamboo flute, he wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. His eyes were like crescent moons, and his face turned even redder.

“You little shit…” Old Jiang couldn’t hold back his anger, and almost spat out a mouthful of old blood. He raised his hand high in the air.

I hunched my neck, knowing that I would not escape this slap, and I might even get a spanking. But I never expected that the slap never fell. In the end, it fell on my head quite softly, and he touched my hair a few times.

“Forget it, you do think of me, and you still say we are still, it seems that you don’t treat your master as an outsider, so I won’t beat you today.” Old Jiang’s face was a bit weird. It looked like he was very moved, but he was deliberately holding back.

“Lao Jiang, you have a good apprentice, who has a heart for his master. Look at my stupid apprentice.” The old man who smoked a pipe spoke, his voice sounding like two stones rubbing together, very unpleasant.

“What good apprentice? I haven’t taught him any skills yet. He can’t catch up with Old Wu’s apprentice. You see how serious Ding is.” Old Jiang was quite humble, but he was laughing lewdly.

“Forget it, look at his stupid appearance, he can’t even drive away these little snakes, I’m afraid I’m going to lose my ability to guard the house.” The old man, whom my master called Old Wu, was quite capable of scolding his apprentice.

The young man called Ding turned his head and looked at us, then at his master, his eyes full of grievance.

I felt a chill in my heart, thinking that my cheap master had not taught me any skills. If he had taught me, and I had not done well, would I have ended up like this little Ding?

But old Jiang didn’t know what I was thinking, and he pulled me over, no, he pulled a bunch of me over, like pulling potatoes out of the ground. There was also a fatty behind me, holding onto my sleeve!

“Old Wu, this is my apprentice, Chen Chengyi. Just call him Sanwa. The fat kid behind me…” My master didn’t know the name of Su Rou, so he turned to look at him.

Su Rou was quick-witted and quickly smiled and said, “My name is Su Laifu, and my nickname is Su Rou. Master, you can just call me Su Rou.”

鈥楶op鈥� Su Rou鈥檚 head was hit again. Old Jiang stared at him and said, 鈥淢aster can鈥檛 call you anything he likes. You have to be good. Call me Master Jiang. Lai Fu, Lai Fu, you are worthy of the name. You have a face that is full of good fortune.鈥�

Su Rou couldn’t understand my master’s rambling speech, and all he knew was to cover his head and call him Master Jiang over and over again. It was so fucking unprincipled, like a traitor. It was the old man who was called and he laughed like a flirt.

“Okay, Sanwa, Su Rou, the old man in front of you, Wu, is a good friend I met here a few years ago. He is very capable. He is a snake handler, and there is no snake he can’t handle.” My master introduced the old man to me and Su Rou.

Su Rou and I quickly called out to Grandpa Wu, and the old man chuckled a few times, successfully making Su Rou and I laugh until we had goosebumps. It was mainly because his voice was so ugly.

“You two are smart kids. I’ll give you a little gift.” With that, the old man handed me and Su Rou a small bamboo tube each.

When I and Su Rou took them, the small bamboo tubes were tightly sealed, with a few small holes in the lid at one end, just like the bottle used to pour pepper now. Smelling it, a pungent smell came to my face. There was also a small hole in the bamboo tube, with a string hanging from it. It looked like it could be tied around the waist.

“It’s a small thing, not worth mentioning. It can be tied around the waist to avoid snakes, insects, rodents, and especially snakes. In an emergency, you can open the bamboo tube and pour out some of the powder inside for better results.” The old Wu head explained a few words lightly.

Su Rou and I were immediately shocked. It was amazing, and it was a good thing. We immediately put the bamboo tube away, treating it like a treasure.

“Don’t you thank Grandpa Wu quickly?” Jiang Laotou shouted next to us, and I and Su Rou immediately thanked him. Especially me, I felt so fresh that I couldn’t help but take out the bamboo tube again and play with it.

The old man didn’t care about us, and squatted down next to the old man Wu, looking worriedly at the snakes on the ground and saying, “I didn’t expect that there would be such a trap in this poor backwater. The things that are kept here are incredible. I’m afraid it will be difficult to deal with them.”

The old Wu replied, “I don’t know about this, you’re the expert. I only know that this gathering of yin energy has attracted a snake spirit, which is a rare thing. Snakes like the dark, and snake spirits are even more secretive. It’s rare for them to appear in front of people. This graveyard is close to people, and it has come here to practice. It can be seen that this gathering of yin energy is extraordinary. If someone is doing it on purpose, it’s hard to guess the purpose.”

The old man Jiang sighed and asked, “Old Wu, are you sure you can get rid of the snake spirit? It’s blocking the entrance to the tomb, and I don’t know if it’s been caught.”

Old Wu was about to answer when Xiao Ding turned his head and finally put down the green bamboo flute in his hand. He said in a northern dialect, “Master, I have no more tricks.”

I originally wanted to ask my master what a snake spirit was, and what kind of powerful creature was lurking underground that was more powerful than the vengeful spirit that had been transformed from Li Fengxian’s anger? But since the young man called Xiaoding had already said so, I didn’t ask any more. I had to let someone else solve the problem first.

He has no more tricks? Could it be that the bamboo flute is not sounding, and he has no more tricks? Anyway, with my confused little head at the time, I couldn’t think of why.

“Forget it. With the snake spirit here, it’s normal for the snakes to gather and not disperse. You’re not good enough. You need to practice more.” Hey, don’t look at the old Wu head scolding his own disciple so harshly. At this time, he still cares about his own disciple.

After that, he walked over and took the bamboo flute from Xiao Ding’s hands. He sat in Xiao Ding’s place and started to play, but again, there was no sound.

Xiao Ding smiled at me with a sense of relief. He was a good-looking young man with big eyes and a deep dimple, but he was a little shy.

“Ding, come here.” The master beckoned to Ding, who came over and sat down next to me. His face was flushed, and he was a little shy, lowering his head slightly. He didn’t know what to say to my master.

“You’re such an honest boy, unlike you and your flabby meat, you shameless mountain monkey!” So, in the old man Jiang’s mind, my heroic warrior is just a mountain monkey?

“Why are you so stupid? Can’t you even play the bamboo flute?” I leaned over and asked Ding, who was sitting next to me, without any hesitation.

“That’s right, that’s right, otherwise I would have told you to blow a bamboo whistle.” Su Rou helped out, saying that we both felt sorry for Ding, who had been playing the bamboo flute for a long time without making a sound.

Old Jiang laughed, looking at me and Su Rou like idiots, and didn’t explain.