Chapter 0001 Black Snake in Dream
On the day I was born, my father was moving the ancestral grave in his hometown. When he was moving the coffin, he found a colorful snake as big as a small bowl, with a black spot on its head, white skin, and about to shed its skin.
At that time, the Feng Shui master said that the snake had a bump on its head and its skin was turning white, which meant it was about to shed its skin and turn into a dragon.
My dad caught the snake and made some wine with it, but the snake was very ferocious when it was shedding its skin. It bit my dad, and in a rage, he beat him to death.
When my mother heard that my father was bitten by a snake, she rushed to send snake medicine. On the mountain road, a snake as thick as a belt tripped her foot and she had fetal movement at that time.
When I was born, thousands of snakes were coiled around me, with their heads half raised, hissing at my mother, as if they were roaring or worshiping her.
When the Feng Shui master who was going to relocate my family’s grave saw this, he ran away without even asking for any money and moved out of our town.
There was a roaring rainstorm that night, and a bolt of lightning struck open my family’s newly moved ancestral grave, and the big snake that my father had killed disappeared.
My father was in a coma for three days, shivering and talking nonsense. My grandmother went to ask for help from a famous fortune teller in the area.
After asking about the rice, Mi Po said that the problem was not with my father, but with me. Then she gave my grandmother a piece of black snake-shaped jade and asked my grandmother to give it to me when I became an adult. She also used glutinous rice to remove the poison from my father.
When my dad woke up that night, the woman named Mi was bitten to death by a snake on her way home. It wasn't the snake venom that killed her, but she was actually bitten to death by the snake.
Everyone in the village said that my father killed the giant snake that was about to transform into a dragon in the ancestral grave, and the snake was taking revenge on him.
He also said that I was targeted by a snake when I was born, which was unlucky.
My father didn't believe these things, but my mother gave birth to me prematurely and her health was damaged, so our family moved to the town, and my father continued his snake wine business.
Ever since I can remember, I have often dreamed of snakes. It was a huge snake with a dark body. No matter what I dreamed about, that snake would be in my dream.
Some may be crouching, some may hold their heads up, some may be hanging, all just staring at me quietly.
The strange thing is that the next morning after I dreamed about snakes, there would always be coiled snakes outside my house, sometimes a few, sometimes a lot, and my dad would catch them and make snake wine.
I told my parents about this dream. They got annoyed by my questions and yelled at me, "Long Ling, if a little girl like you dreams of a snake, it means you will have good fortune in the near future or you will give birth to a boy. Both are good things. Children should not believe in those feudal superstitions!"
But as I grew up, the giant snake in my dreams became clearer and clearer. Sometimes when I woke up in the middle of the night, I could feel the snake lying next to me.
If I move my fingers slightly in the quilt, I seem to touch the cold, rough scales.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been having this dream all the time, and slowly I got used to it. Sometimes in my dreams, I would say a few words to the giant snake, asking it questions like “What on earth do you want to do? What do you want? Why do you keep appearing in my dreams?”
But the giant snake ignored me and just looked at me indifferently.
On the night of my eighteenth birthday, the giant snake in my dream was no longer just looking at me from a distance, but slowly crawled towards me.
I instinctively wanted to escape, but in the dream, I couldn't move at all. The snake just slowly crawled towards me.
I was so scared that I broke out in a cold sweat and closed my eyes tightly, trying hard to wake up.
"What are you thinking about? Your forehead is all sweat." The black snake crawled to my side and slowly turned into a man in a black robe.
His facial features were as sharp as a knife, his eyes were as dark as stars, and his thin lips were slightly pursed.
When I saw this face, I was suddenly stunned.
The man in black robe seemed to be weak and boneless. He lay beside me and just looked up at me: "You ask Long Qixu to move all the snake wine out tomorrow. The snake is coming. No snake can stay in your house."
His voice was deep and urgent. He seemed to be afraid of something while speaking. He raised his head and looked around: "We must not leave any snakes alive."
Then he slowly turned into a black snake, with sadness flashing in his eyes: "Long Ling, I can't protect you outside, you have to be careful."
When the black snake crawled away, I suddenly woke up from my dream.
The room was very quiet. I stared at the ceiling, not daring to turn my head. I just carefully moved my fingers towards the direction where the black snake was lying in my dream. After making sure that I touched the quilt, I breathed a sigh of relief.
My father was snoring so loudly in the next room that I broke out in a sweat, so I went downstairs to drink some water.
My house is a three-story building that I built in the town. The first floor is a storefront, I live on the second floor, and the third floor is rented to a family of four who do business in the town.
The water dispenser was just at the corner of the stairs, and my mind was still thinking about what I had just dreamed about.
That black snake turned into a human and asked my dad to move the snake wine away. It seemed like it was afraid of another snake that was about to come?
I was so thirsty that I didn't even turn on the light. I just picked up the cup and drank the water.
The water dispenser was bubbling with a sound, and faintly, it seemed as if something in the store was pumping water and making a "gurgling" sound.
It also seemed like something was constantly hitting the glass, making a "pa pa" sound.
I held the water cup in my hand and thought about what the black snake said in my dream. I felt cold all over.
As if possessed by a ghost, I held the glass of water, turned on the light, and slowly walked towards the shelf where my father kept the snake wine.
There are two large shelves against the wall of the store, filled with snake wine and various kinds of snakes, soaked in various medicinal herbs according to their categories.
The light shone through the amber wine, and the snakes that usually stayed at the bottom seemed to come alive. Their bodies, either colorful or striped, swam slowly along the glass bottle.
Some even used their snake tails to whip the glass bottles hard, causing the wine to splash around.
I was so scared that I held the water glass tightly. At the same time, all the snakes in the glass bottle turned around, raised their heads and pressed against the glass bottle.
The tightly closed eyes slowly opened and stared at me through the glass, and the snake's tail hit the glass bottle in a strange rhythm.
Those pairs of snake eyes seemed to flash a faint green light, making me dizzy.
The sounds of the snakes' tails flapping gathered together and turned into a hissing sound, as if calling me: "Long Ling, Long Ling."
I wanted to run, but when I turned around, I saw green snake eyes everywhere, as if the surroundings were made of snake wine bottles. There was a snake in each glass bottle, staring at me coldly and hissing something at me.
As the world was spinning, I seemed to hear a voice in my head growling, and then the man in black robe suddenly appeared beside me.
The wide sleeves of the black robe spread out and covered my head: "Don't look!"
Everything went dark before my eyes, and then I seemed to hear the sound of countless water splashing, and then my eyes lit up.
The man in black robe was still standing beside me, his body was staggering, his face was pale, even his handsome thin lips were bloodless.
He said to me solemnly: "Tomorrow you must send all the snakes away, not even one can be left. I can only come out once, I can't..."
Before he could finish his words, his figure gradually faded and then disappeared.
The store seemed to have become very quiet. On the two rows of shelves, the snakes in all the snake wine bottles seemed to be dead, with their bodies turned over , belly up, floating in the amber wine.
Live snakes are best for making snake wine. What my father is most proud of is that the snakes in every bottle of snake wine in his store are alive.
But now, all the snakes are upside down.
I held the cup of water and ran upstairs quickly.
Wake my dad up from his loud snoring.
"Long Ling, what are you arguing about? You don't have to study tomorrow!" My dad was a little angry and muttered to me: "Your mother will not be in the mood to play mahjong tomorrow. If you lose, she will scold you."
"All the snakes are dead." I shouted.
But he still concealed the matter of the black snake: "I went down to drink water and saw that the snakes soaked in snake wine had turned upside down."
My dad woke up immediately and didn't care whether he woke up my mom or not. He hurried downstairs without even putting on his shoes. Then I heard my dad's angry voice downstairs.
I was still nervous about the snake wine, so I just looked at my dad from the corner and said, "Let's throw them all away while no one knows."
"What do you know? This is all money." My father stroked his hair angrily and waved his hand at me: "Okay, go to bed. This is an adult matter, don't worry about it."
"It would be bad if people knew that the snake wine you made was made from dead snakes. Let's get rid of them all today and don't ruin our reputation." I thought about what Black Snake said and still didn't give up.
My father valued his business of soaking live snakes in wine the most, and nodded a little impatiently.
At noon, I called my mother from school on purpose, and my father seemed to be loudly calling customers to sell snake wine.
My mother was probably playing cards on her phone. She said impatiently, "They're all sold. Your father has been doing business for so many years. There's no way he couldn't sell dozens of bottles of snake wine. Even the regular customers are not enough."
During dinner, I made an excuse that I forgot to bring the book and took a taxi back to take a look.
After making sure that all the snake wine on the shelf was gone, I still admire my dad.
After evening self-study get out of class, my dad picked me up.
He told me proudly: "Your dad is having a big sale today. All the snake wine is sold out. It's a lot of money. After you finish the college entrance examination, we will take you on a trip. Do well in the exam! Make your dad proud!"
I breathed a sigh of relief after making sure there wasn’t a single bottle of snake wine left on the store shelves.
My mom may have collected the money and went to play mahjong today. My dad sent me home and was asked to go out for a drink again.
I was the only one at home. After washing up, I prepared to go back to my room to sleep, thinking that if I dreamed about the black snake again, I would definitely ask him what was going on.
Before closing the door, I seemed to hear some splashing sounds on the third floor, which sounded like the sound of the snakes' tails hitting the glass bottles last night.
