Chapter 337 There is a kind of white snake that eats its own eggshells
It was because Ye Xiaomei had never seen what the newly dug out black toad stone looked like. She thought it was just a hard black toad, and she had never heard of it turning into stone. Moreover, this stone did not look like a toad at all.
"I haven't heard that white snakes eat their own eggshells. I just heard that there is such a white snake in Changshou Village." Ye Xiaomei didn't know if this was a coincidence. She had planned to come here for some quiet time, but who would have thought that she would meet this snake. It felt as if fate had already arranged it.
Zhang Erquan looked at Heizi with disdain: "You really are a fake Changshou Village person. Look, our sister-in-law knows it."
When Heizi heard this, he was about to take action, but thanks to Zhang Erquan who quickly hid behind his sister-in-law, Heizi had to give up.
When they were going down the mountain, the three of them calmed down and started chatting as they walked.
Heizi admitted that his ancestors were indeed from Changshou Village, but his grandfather's generation encountered a severe drought and the farm had no harvest, so he took his family and children out to escape the famine. Later, everyone in his family died one after another. In order to survive, he fled to Myanmar, where he was deceived by a group of criminals.
There is no need to mention what happened later. The Battle of Myanmar happened and he escaped during the war. He almost died on the road. It was Ma Qijun who rescued him and followed him afterwards.
Zhang Erquan's eyes lit up when he heard this. He stopped and saluted: "Brother Heizi, I didn't expect you to have such an impressive experience. I was just superficial."
After all, he usually seems cheerful all day long and doesn't look like he's experienced any hardships at all, especially when he just joined the army a few months ago. It's common for veteran soldiers to bully new recruits and make them wash their clothes and socks, but Heizi brother would never bully him.
And I heard that he had a very good relationship with the leader, so on the one hand, I wanted to curry favor with him so that I wouldn't be bullied in the future, and on the other hand, I also wanted to thank him, so I gave him the black toad stone that my mother gave him when he came here.
Heizi stopped, patted Zhang Erquan on the shoulder, and said earnestly:
"Learn it well."
Ye Xiaomei has been thinking about this question all the way. She feels that she can't escape from the matter of White Snake wherever she goes. Could it really be some kind of hint or arrangement?
"By the way, Zhang Erquan, is your family still living in Changshou Village now?" Ye Xiaomei asked.
Zhang Erquan, with the shyness of a grown boy, smiled helplessly and said:
"I still live in Changshou Village, but only my mother is here."
Ye Xiaomei also wanted to find out more indirectly, so she couldn't help but ask, "Is your mother the only one left in your family?"
Zhang Erquan nodded and said:
"Well, I heard from my father that my great-grandfather was a doctor in that dynasty. After he retired and returned to his hometown, he passed down his medical skills. After that, my great-grandfather went traveling around. Whether he was dead or alive, no one in the family saw him alive or dead.
By my father's generation, many traditional medical skills had been lost, but they were more knowledgeable about herbal medicine. My father later passed on the knowledge of identifying and preparing herbal medicine to my mother.
Now my mother often goes to the mountains to collect herbs, and she raised me by selling herbs."
Grandfather? He must be dead. She roughly counted the number of years on her fingers. How many hundred years can a person live? Ye Xiaomei took a breath of cool air. She didn't expect that this kid was also a miserable person.
Ye Xiaomei wanted to continue asking, so she continued tentatively, "Then you've heard of the red maple trees on the hills of Changshou Village, right?"
Zhang Erquan's pupils shrank, and an elusive sadness flashed across his eyes. His voice became a little low:
"I heard that it was burned down by the villagers thirty years ago. My father..." He paused, took a breath, and continued:
"My grandfather cherished herbs very much. Even when he went up the mountain to dig ginseng, he would never dig them too clean. He said that it would cut off his descendants and he should leave a way for future generations. When he heard about the burning of the red maple tree, he got so angry that he damaged his vitality and lived in bed for more than ten years in a daze.
Later, when I was eight years old, one day, my dad came back very happily and said that the roots of the red maple tree had sprouted, and grandpa could finally rest in peace. He was a teetotaler, but he got drunk that day. Unexpectedly, a group of people who claimed to be from some research institute came and dug up the roots of the tree. My dad went to stop them, but was beaten to death by them.
Ye Xiaomei swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Research Institute? Why did she have a strange feeling that there must be something fishy going on here? Since they were from the research institute, they wouldn't beat someone to death, right? That would be against the law.
"Then you..." Ye Xiaomei paused and asked directly: "Then you didn't call the police?"
Zhang Erquan curled his lips sarcastically and said, "There is a kind of Chinese medicine under the red maple tree that is very expensive. The people of Changshou Village and the people of the county police station are in the same boat because they spent money to get the connections. In the end, that group of people were brought in by the police station. How could we call the police? Besides, I was young at that time, there was no man in my family, only my mother, a mentally retarded woman, there was nothing we could do."
Hei Zi was so engrossed in what he heard that he gritted his teeth and said angrily:
"The world was in chaos at that time. You don't know this, sister-in-law, especially in closed places. Not to mention other things, your mother's hometown, Hongmei Village, was actually considered developed compared to Changshou Village."
Ye Xiaomei was very curious about Changshou Village. Even if the public security management was in chaos, it was reasonable to kill someone and pay for his life:
"Heizi, what you mean is that Changshou Village is more remote than ordinary villages?"
Heizi sighed, "It's not just remote, it's closed. Can you imagine that in this era of reform and opening up, Changshou Village still has sacrificial activities? If it doesn't rain, they still offer sacrifices to the sky. If that woman cheats, she will be put in a pig cage. It's simply a place where even revolution cannot be carried out. If outsiders don't have someone to lead them, they can't even find the entrance to the village."
Zhang Erquan nodded vigorously: "Brother Heizi is right. It is very remote and feudal. We are the only one who can read. Even my mother only learned some knowledge from my grandfather after she married my father. When I grew up and was sent to school by my mother, I found that the gap was very big."
Ye Xiaomei nodded silently. Yes, Zhang Erquan’s ancestor was a doctor from that dynasty, so he must be knowledgeable.
However, Ye Xiaomei could tell that Zhang Erquan never mentioned the Black Toad Stone, and only said it was a kind of extremely expensive herb. It seemed that what Tang Bushi said was true.
If this thing were to be revealed to someone who didn't know anything about it, it would be fine. But if someone who knew something about it were to be revealed, it would probably be troublesome. Fortunately, she had already buried the remaining black toad stones in a place where only she could find them.
What's more, now the rumors in the outside world have long been limited to the news that there is no one in Changshou Village, and it has gradually faded from people's impression.
Ye Xiaomei wanted to connect all the things together, such as Qin Rong's research on white snakes. Although Ye Xiaomei instinctively thought of Qin Rong when she heard Zhang Erquan talking about the research institute just now, what exactly did she want to do by studying white snakes?
It can't be to attract the extinct black toad, right? The black toad is just a magical medicine for treating bone diseases. Is it for medical purposes?
Ye Xiaomei suddenly turned her head to take a look. The place where the three of them had just dug the hole was already far away.
When she looked away, Ye Xiaomei remembered the story Tang Buci had told her.
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