PCJ – Chapter 66 Dense with Snakes

Gong ZiYuan had just started working not long ago, earning less than one hundred yuan a month. This five yuan was almost two days’ worth of his income. Although teaching at Meizi Village Elementary School didn’t incur much expense, five yuan still made him feel a pinch.

“Zhang Jiaohua.” After school, Gong ZiYuan stopped Zhang Jiaohua. He wanted to return the protective talisman to Zhang Jiaohua, not because he couldn’t bear to part with the five yuan, but because he was worried about the embarrassment if word got out that he had bought a talisman from Zhang Jiaohua.

“Gong laoshi, is there something you need?” Zhang Jiaohua looked at Gong laoshi strangely, thinking he might be asking about how to use the talisman. “You just need to put the protective talisman under your pillow. If you still need it, I can give you one when I finish making the amulet.”

“Um, it’s not about that. I want to ask you not to tell anyone about the protective talisman.” Gong Zi Yuan decided not to return the talisman. Five yuan could be considered lost in a card game. In the school, colleagues would sometimes play cards after school when they had nothing else to do. But it was all just for fun, using points as currency. Five yuan would cover almost a month’s wins and losses.

“I definitely won’t tell anyone,” Zhang Jiaohua replied. He had no one to tell in the whole village except for the Dumb. The Dumb’s hearing wasn’t very sharp, and Zhang Jiaohua didn’t talk much with him. Usually, it was the Dumb who chattered away.

After school, Gong ZiYuan returned to his room with textbooks and teaching materials, sitting down and lighting a Mountain Brand cigarette. These cigarettes weren’t cheap, costing two fen and eight cents per pack. They were much fancier than the dry tobacco or loose cigarettes smoked by most people in the countryside.

“What was I thinking?” Gong Zi Yuan couldn’t understand why he had acted impulsively today, spending five yuan to buy a talisman that might have been drawn casually by a first-grade student.

Gong ZiYuan took out the talisman from the textbook. Upon opening it, he saw that although the drawings inside were very strange, they were indeed very orderly. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like the scribblings of a first-grade student.

“Never mind. Since I’ve already bought it, I’ll just keep it.” Gong Zi Yuan shook his head, folding the talisman back up and placing it under his pillow.

There were a few mu of vegetable fields around Meizi Village Elementary School, land that had been allocated to the school back when it was still Meizi Brigade’s land. Now that the brigade had become a village, no one touched the school’s land. There were a total of seven teachers and the principal in the school. The land was divided among them, and since Gong ZiYuan had only come to the school this year, he naturally got the land that other teachers had passed over.

Although Gong ZiYuan had grown up in town, there weren’t many people of his generation who didn’t know how to farm. Moreover, after coming to Meizi Village, Gong ZiYuan couldn’t buy vegetable seeds anywhere, and he didn’t feel comfortable always picking vegetables from other people’s fields, so he reluctantly planted some vegetables himself.

“Gong laoshi, you’ve planted quite a variety of crops here. But the season seems a bit off. Look at these green beans, although they’re called late green beans, you’ve planted them a bit too late. Green beans like hot weather. It’s already the beginning of autumn. Once there’s frost, your green beans will all be gone.” Zhang Shunlin was the son of Zhang Dechun, the village party secretary. After finishing high school, he originally wanted to join the army, but Zhang Shunlin used his connections to stay in the village and become a private teacher. Making a few dozen yuan a month was definitely better than being a farmer.

Gong ZiYuan smiled awkwardly. He didn’t know much about planting crops when he came here. He just randomly bought some seeds from the seed company in town. He didn’t expect that either he planted too early or too late, making a big joke. Gong ZiYuan didn’t care. Since he had already planted them, he came every day to loosen the soil, weed, and water, hoping to harvest some crops. It’s scary how someone with education doesn’t understand the concept of planting out-of-season crops.

Gong ZiYuan’s plot of land was indeed not good. It was too close to the classroom, so half of it was blocked from sunlight by the classroom. Oh, right, the snake he killed in the morning was in the ditch next to his vegetable field. Gong ZiYuan saw the dried bloodstains still present in that spot.

Gong ZiYuan was too lazy to deal with the weeds at the edge of the vegetable field, so they grew very lush. That was also the reason why that group of playful brats found their way here. If it weren’t for them, it would have been difficult to find any traces.

As Gong ZiYuan looked at the grass at the edge of the vegetable field, it suddenly shook.

What was that? Gong Zi Yuan fixed his eyes and saw, ah! It’s a snake!

Gong ZiYuan wasn’t as brave as the brats from Meizi Village. His courage wasn’t small, or else he wouldn’t dare to live alone in Meizi Village Primary School where there were neither villages nor shops nearby. But even the bravest person would have something they feared, and Gong ZiYuan was most afraid of snakes. Seeing a snake made his legs go weak.

Gong ZiYuan threw away his hoe and ran for it.

“Gong laoshi, why are you running in a panic?” Zhang Shunlin saw Gong Zi Yuan’s strange behavior and immediately asked with concern.

“Snake, snake!” Gong Zi Yuan’s voice trembled as he spoke.

“Just one snake, what are you afraid of? I heard that this morning, the brats from Runma Lane caught a big snake weighing a few kilograms. It’s a pity I had something to do and went late. Otherwise, I would have had a feast. Let me tell you, the number one delicacy in Meizi Gorge is snake meat. My dad, the village party secretary, got his position by trading a bowl of snake meat. My dad’s skill in cooking snake meat is absolutely top-notch. When you have time, I’ll let you see it. [Website]”

Seeing Gong Zi Yuan’s pale face, Zhang Shunlin couldn’t help but burst into laughter. This city person was really timid. However, when Zhang Shunlin walked into Gong Zi Yuan’s vegetable field and saw what was happening in the grass at the edge of the field, he also couldn’t help but take a few steps back.

Snake! So many snakes!

Even if Zhang Shunlin was brave, he couldn’t help but retreat several steps.

The ditch was densely packed with snakes!

After returning home, Zhang Jiaohua quickly finished his dinner and ran to the main hall, taking down all the yellow paper and cinnabar that his dad had bought back from town that day. He had finally drawn a protective talisman at school today, only to have Gong laoshi buy it for five yuan. He didn’t plan to expand production to increase income. Instead, he wanted to draw the protective talisman as soon as possible and place it at home.

Because of the incident with the king snake in the morning, Zhang Jiaohua felt uneasy. It’s not that he didn’t want to stop what happened in the morning, but he simply couldn’t. The villagers had the concept of “if you see a snake, kill it without mercy,” and this king snake was harmless. Any brat in the countryside dared to catch it bare-handed. Killing a snake was nothing to rural people. If Zhang Jiaohua tried to stop it, he would be seen as crazy. He couldn’t stop it either. There were so many older students surrounding it. How could a first-grade student like Zhang Jiaohua stop it?

But since the incident happened, Zhang Jiaohua had a premonition that something unusual would happen. So he urgently wanted to place the protective talisman at home.