Chapter 17: Rescue
Ji Zheng is not afraid of soft-bodied animals like snakes, but he feels a little disgusted by them.
However, with the few copper coins on his body, he could not afford to be evil.
As for storytelling, Ji Zheng planned to put it aside for now. He would first go with the villagers to catch snakes to earn some money, and then slowly figure out how to make money from storytelling.
Thinking of this, Ji Zheng also said, "I'll go too."
"Okay, after you finish your meal, take your tools and gather at the village entrance," said Ji's father.
The meal was finished quickly.
A few people took the snake bag, sickle, hemp rope, and a bottle of green ointment made from some unknown herb and set off for the village entrance.
When we arrived at the entrance of the village, there were already several men from the same village.
They also carried tools.
Although they were from the same village, these men were not familiar with Ji Zheng. When they saw Ji Zheng, they just smiled and nodded and then disappeared.
Ji Zheng didn't say anything and stood aside studying the ointment in his hand.
This ointment has a very unpleasant smell, not smelly but very pungent, and is used for emergency treatment when bitten by a snake.
Although catching snakes is profitable, it is also a dangerous job. Once a man in the village was bitten by a poisonous snake and died on the spot.
Therefore, most of the people who come nowadays are families with several men in their family. This way, at least they can ensure that if something unexpected happens, there will still be a man in the family to take care of things.
After waiting for a while, a few more men came one after another. When it was almost noon and no one came, the village chief gave the order to go to the back mountain to catch snakes.
A group of people were walking towards the back mountain. Before they had gone far, they heard someone shouting from behind, "Wait for me! Wait for me!"
The voice sounded familiar. Ji Zheng looked back and saw that the person running towards him was Li Wencheng.
Li Wencheng is the only child in his family, and they are not poor, so why did he come to catch snakes?
Of course, the village chief asked this question for him, "Cheng, why are you here?"
Li Wencheng calmed down his breath, grinned, and shook the bag in his hand and said, "Of course I'm here to catch snakes!"
"Nonsense! Does your father know?" The village chief knew the situation of Li Wencheng's family.
"Oh, don't be angry, Village Chief. My father knows about it." Li Wencheng had a playful smile on his face, looking nonchalant.
The village chief naturally didn't believe him and raised his eyebrows, "Don't make trouble, go home quickly!"
"No! I want to catch a snake!" Li Wencheng had a determined look on his face, as if he was determined to go.
After saying this, he saw that the village chief was about to speak again, so he hurried in front of the village chief and said, "Don't worry, village chief. I will definitely not cause any trouble."
"No! Go back!" The village chief looked serious.
"I don't want it, I want to go!" Li Wencheng also started to be stubborn, "Anyway, I will follow you."
The two looked at each other face to face. After a while, the village chief gave up and said, "You are really..."
Seeing the village chief's relaxed expression, Li Wencheng's eyebrows lit up with joy, and he quickly said in a soft voice: "I promise to follow the main force and not run around."
The village chief didn't say anything, just looked at him, turned around and continued walking towards the back mountain.
After getting complete agreement, Li Wencheng grinned like a fool.
He is an extrovert. Although his family has a little money, he is humble and does not show off. He has a good relationship with most of the men in the village.
With the consent of the village chief, he immediately blended into the crowd with a smile on his face.
The sun was at its highest point in the sky and the temperature in the air was gradually rising. Although Ji Zheng was only wearing one piece of clothing, he still felt hot.
As for why we don’t catch snakes at night, firstly, there is no lighting, so it is easier to encounter danger; secondly, it is just after winter, and some snakes will come out to bask in the sun, making them easier to catch.
Arrived at the foot of the mountain.
"Safety first, safety first. You can only stay at the foot of the mountain and cannot go up the mountain. Do you understand?" the village chief ordered loudly.
There are large animals on the mountain, and no one is allowed to go up there except the village chief, a hunter.
The main reason was that someone had been there before, but then disappeared and could not be found. The whole village searched for several days, but in the end they only found blood-stained clothes. Later, the village chief issued a ban forbidding villagers to go up the mountain.
"If I find out that anyone goes up the mountain without permission, he will bear the consequences himself!" The village chief's expression was serious as he scanned everyone's face.
The village chief was still very intimidating when he got serious, so everyone promised not to go up the mountain, even Li Wencheng, who looked nonchalant, promised not to go up the mountain.
After giving the instructions, the village chief divided the group into several teams, and each team went in a different direction.
Coincidentally, Li Wencheng was assigned to Ji Zheng's team.
There are five people in their team. Except Ji Zheng and Li Wencheng, the other three are in their forties, so Li Wencheng can only chat with Ji Zheng.
"This is my first time to catch a snake." Li Wencheng rubbed his palms, looking very excited.
Looking at Li Wencheng like this, Ji Zheng secretly rolled his eyes. This man probably came here out of curiosity and fun, and didn't realize the danger of this matter at all.
"How many times have you been here?" Li Wencheng approached Ji Zheng and asked.
"Probably three or four times." Ji Zheng said casually, but he couldn't remember exactly how many times.
"So many times, have you ever caught a snake as big as that?" Li Wencheng gestured with his hands open.
“No.” How could there be such a big snake? If I encountered such a big snake, I would be lucky to survive, let alone catch it.
It seems that Li Wencheng is the stupid son of a landlord and is well protected by his family.
Hearing Ji Zheng say no, Li Wencheng was not disappointed, and still said with a smile, "I don't know if we will meet today."
"Wencheng, there are no snakes this big here." A man walking in front said with a smile, "The largest one is only about one meter long."
"Oh, so that's it? I understand, Uncle Dong." Li Wencheng smiled awkwardly.
"What does your family do in town?" In order to prevent Li Wencheng from asking random questions, Ji Zheng took the initiative to start a conversation.
"I run a noodle shop." Li Wencheng replied. Although his noodle shop is not big, it has good business and the monthly income is not bad.
"You haven't been to my noodle shop to eat noodles, right? Next time you go to town, come to my house and I'll treat you to a free meal!" Li Wencheng said generously.
This is also the reason why he has good relationships with others. He is very generous and does not care about others.
"Okay." Ji Zheng responded, in a good mood, because he had just thought of a way to make money.
"Stop talking, you two guys. The snakes will be scared away by you soon." A man in front turned around and said to them.
After hearing this, Ji Zheng and Li Wencheng immediately shut up.
Ji Zheng also remembered that he came here to catch snakes, so he stopped focusing on chatting with Li Wencheng and instead carefully observed the surroundings to see if there were any snakes.
Perhaps it was the blessing of the time-travelling god, for he actually saw a rather large colorful snake.
He took out the snake catching tools, gave the others a look, and walked towards the snake with light steps.
Although he had never caught a snake, he had the memory of the original owner in his mind. Relying on the original owner's muscle memory, this snake successfully became Ji Zheng's snake in the bag.
This was the first snake their team caught. Li Wencheng was extremely excited. He even reached into Ji Zheng's pocket to see how big the snake was.
Following Ji Zheng's start, others also caught snakes one after another.
Of course, except for Li Wencheng, he came here just to play, so when he saw the snake, he just told others about it and didn't catch it himself.
However, I don’t know if it’s because snakes only bully the weak and fear the strong or what, the four people who caught the snake were not bitten, but Li Wencheng, who didn’t catch the snake, was bitten.
It was still a poisonous snake. It suddenly jumped out from the bushes on the side of the road, accurately targeted Li Wencheng, and bit his arm.
Ji Zheng was standing next to Li Wencheng. Without much thought, he grabbed the snake's seven orifices with his bare hands and smashed it hard against a large rock on the ground. The snake fainted instantly.
Looking at the snake that was knocked unconscious on the ground, Li Wencheng finally realized that he was bitten. The severe pain made him scream.
This call attracted several other people around.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?"
"How did you get bitten?"
"Tear off the clothes and see if it's poisonous or not?"
At this time, Li Wencheng was already stunned by the pain. Seeing that he didn't move, Ji Zheng hurried forward and tore open his sleeves, revealing two black wounds in front of his eyes.
Viper!
Suddenly, several people's faces turned very ugly.
Ji Zheng glanced at Li Wencheng, who was sweating profusely from the pain, hesitated for a second, then lowered his head and helped him take the drugs.
"Zheng boy, what are you doing?"
"It's going to kill me! Let me go!"
Ji Zheng ignored the noises around him and spat the black blood in his mouth onto the ground. He didn't let go of Li Wencheng until the blood turned red.
"Water, give me water."
The man next to him quickly gave his water bottle to Ji Zheng, and Ji Zheng took several sips of the water and rinsed his mouth.
"Get the medicine quickly and then go to the clinic." Ji Zheng said again.
Uncle Dong who had spoken earlier quickly took out the ointment and applied it on Li Wencheng's wound, then carried him on his back and went back to the village.
"Zheng boy, are you okay? How about I carry you back?" a man asked with concern.
Ji Zheng was sitting on the ground at this moment. He had just taken drugs and was very energetic, but now his body felt a little weak.
"It's okay, Fourth Uncle. I'll be fine in a moment." Ji Zheng waved his hands.
"OK."
The man called Fourth Uncle didn't say anything else. After all, Ji Zheng was a man. He turned around and picked up the snake that Ji Zheng had knocked unconscious and put it into Ji Zheng's pocket.
"Thank you, Fourth Uncle." Ji Zheng thanked him.
"What are you thanking me for? You were the one who knocked the snake unconscious in the first place." Fourth Uncle waved his hand.
After this incident, Ji Zheng no longer had the mood to catch snakes. He picked up his bag, said something to the remaining two people, and went home.
It was still early, only afternoon. Ji Zheng looked at the snake in his pocket, hesitated for a moment, turned around and headed towards the town.
When he arrived at the entrance of the village, he was lucky enough to meet Li Wencheng's horse-drawn carriage, which seemed to be heading to the town's medical clinic.
Uncle Dong and Li's parents had already told him about how he disregarded his own safety and helped Li Wencheng take drugs, so when they saw him going to the town, they enthusiastically invited him to get on the carriage.
Li's parents also tried hard to have him go to the hospital to check if any toxins had entered his body.
Ji Zheng also had this concern in his mind, so he just went with the flow.
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