With a "whoosh".
The wood-chopping knife grazed my face and struck the tree trunk beside me.
I turned my head and saw, good heavens, it was a venomous snake with its head cut off.
Although the snake had lost its head, its body was still writhing wildly, tightly coiling around the wood-chopping knife.
A slender hand reached out, grabbed the still writhing snake, and stuffed it into the cloth bag hanging from the waist.
The snake's head was still firmly pinned to the tree trunk by a woodcutter's knife, its mouth opening and closing as it searched for a target to attack.
"Don't be afraid, the snake is dead."
The little girl reached out her hand to me.
I quickly thanked her and stood up, taking her hand.
This is a young girl who is eighteen or nineteen years old.
She was pretty, with bright, sparkling eyes, but her face was half white as paper and half black as charcoal, which looked rather frightening.
He was wearing a faded blue cotton jacket with patches on the hem, and black coarse cloth trousers.
A hemp rope was tied around his waist, from which hung several cloth bags of different sizes, bulging and full, their contents unknown.
"Move aside, I need to take the snake's head off!"
As she spoke, she gripped the handle of the wood-chopping knife with both hands, pulled hard, and ripped the knife off the tree trunk.
He squatted down and dug around a couple of times, then threw the snake's head into the pit and buried it. He even stomped on it a few times.
"Don't be fooled by the fact that the snake's head has been cut off. It's incredibly resilient. If someone walks by within two or three hours, they might get bitten. That's why it has to be buried."
After finishing all that, she stood up, dusted off her hands, tilted her head, and asked me with a puzzled look, "Are you a tourist from out of town? What brings you to this remote mountain forest?"
I nodded and asked her where this was.
"Ruiwei Village!"
Is this Ruiwei Village?
I quickly asked her, "Is there an old lady named Lingmei in your village?"
The little girl blinked rapidly and asked in surprise, "You're here to see Grandma Mei for treatment too?"
"She's a doctor? Or is she some kind of paper cutout?"
I have to confirm, otherwise it would be troublesome if it were that old lady who cuts paper figures.
"You mean the old lady of the Sun family, right?"
The little girl smiled sweetly, with two shallow dimples on her face.
If she didn't have a "two-toned face," she would definitely be a stunning beauty.
Especially her eyes, which are like clear springs in the deep mountains, lively and pure, brimming with unadorned simplicity and innocence.
"Does Grandma Sun know how to cut paper figures?" I asked, feigning curiosity.
"That's for sure!"
The little girl blinked: "The paper figures that Grandma Sun cut out are so beautiful, they look just like real people. And let me tell you something."
She leaned closer, looking mysterious: "The paper figures the old lady cuts out can even help her with chores."
I sneered and said that he was indeed capable of doing the work, and he could even arrest people and lock them up.
"Lock them up?"
The little girl's eyes were full of doubt, and her head unconsciously tilted to one side.
"Did you get it wrong? The old lady is such a kind person, she's polite to everyone. During festivals, she'll give the village kids paper-cuts she makes herself, and everyone loves to go to her place to listen to her stories."
Strange, why is this little girl's situation different from mine?
Could it be that we're not talking about the same person?
Or are there two old ladies who know how to cut paper figures?
I asked her if there were any elderly women in her village who knew how to cut paper figures.
"There's only one!"
As she spoke, she angrily grabbed my hand, trying to drag me to confront Grandma Sun.
"If you don't believe me, I'll take you to her house to see for yourself. My sister just went to listen to a story with the old lady. She's not the bad person you're talking about!"
Where can I go?
Can they come back after going?
I quickly explained that I was just joking, and then changed the subject by asking her, "Is the Grandma Mei you were talking about a doctor?"
Perhaps because she couldn't bear to hear me speak ill of Grandma Sun, the little girl snorted and muttered under her breath, "If I had known you would be bitten to death by a poisonous snake, I wouldn't have saved you."
I was left speechless, both amused and exasperated, but I could only pretend I hadn't heard it.
Despite her anger, the girl still told the truth.
"Grandma Mei is the doctor in our village. We all go to her for help when we have a headache or fever. And if anyone gets a strange illness, she can cure it too."
"A strange illness?"
The little girl tucked the wood-chopping knife into her belt and nodded.
"It's what you outsiders call ghost encounters. If anything strange happens in our village, we go to her for help, and she doesn't charge us. Last time, Little Fatty's dad came home drunk in the middle of the night and his soul was taken by something evil. It was Grandma Mei who helped him find his soul!"
Thank goodness, hearing this made me so excited I almost cried.
It matches perfectly!
I excitedly asked her if she could take me to see Grandma Mei.
"If you had come yesterday, it would have been fine, but you probably won't be able to find it today!"
I asked her why.
The little girl said, "Grandma Mei has to go to [Hidden Fairy Trail] every three years to find the white fox, and she can only come back a month later."
A month?
How could I wait? Even if I could wait, Luo Tianhe couldn't.
I quickly took out two hundred yuan and gave it to her, asking her to take me to find Grandma Mei.
The little girl, who had just regained her smile, instantly changed her expression upon seeing the money.
She pouted angrily, "Put your stinking money away. You outsiders are really disgusting, always trying to give me money. We people from the mountains aren't as materialistic as you."
I chuckled awkwardly and asked her if she often received money from others.
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