Chapter 0018: Self-inflicted Death
The car was parked directly in front of the public hall built in the village, where ancestor worship is held every year during the Chinese New Year.
All the people outside have returned, unlike usual times when only the elderly are left in the village.
It was very lively at that time. The villagers used public funds to hold banquets and roast pigs and lambs.
Everyone is very busy. The grandmothers can make glutinous rice balls.
Steam the glutinous rice, then chop it into a paste with lean meat and eggs, roll it into balls and steam it again. Deep-fry until dry and drain the oil.
The taste is much better than fried chicken or roast duck.
That is my and other children's favorite dish in the village. However, we cannot usually eat it because it involves so many steps in making it.
Every time before it was time to eat, these grandmothers would take bowls of steamed meatballs and give them to us younger ones first to satisfy our cravings.
In our village, we don’t call people “cousin grandma” or “grandma” or anything like that. We all call them grandma, as if there is no distinction.
A bunch of cousins would smile and give us red envelopes when they saw us younger generations. Some gave thousands, while others gave hundreds.
The little cash I have in my pocket now was given to me by my uncles during the Chinese New Year. I kept it secretly and my parents didn't take it away.
But at this moment, there was a funeral in the village, and a tofu feast was set up, but the food had not yet been served. Everyone was sitting at the round table, looking at me with sullen eyes.
Among them were the grandmothers who secretly brought me fried glutinous rice balls , and the uncles who gave me red envelopes.
My grandmother was tied to a willow tree next to the court, and several people were watching her.
A young man who looked to be in his forties shook my grandmother's old phone and said, "Long Ling, this!"
I looked at him and said, "I know what you are going to do, but my cousin has already kidnapped someone. If you do it again, it's a bit like following his old ways."
"It's useful." Uncle Seven laughed and waved to the people around him: "Long Ling is back, what do you think?"
It seems that all the people who stayed in the village are here. Then I realized that there are no children in our village, only the older generation.
We are the only family in this town.
Even though there was a funeral at home, those who were outside did not come back.
They all looked at me with gloomy faces, but said nothing.
Aunt Liu likes to be a good person the most. She stood up and said, "Long Ling, there is nothing we can do."
"Everyone wants to be rich and successful, but young people nowadays are under a lot of pressure outside. It's not a big deal for us older generations to stay at home, but young people need a way out." Aunt Liu tried hard to put on a smile.
Who doesn't have a reason to do bad things?
I looked at these people, and saw that several of them were almost bitten to death by snakes near the grave that night.
Now they are sitting there too, thinking about burying me again…
"If you let my grandma go, there is a car at the entrance of the village that will take her directly to the town to be with Qin Mipo." I took out my cell phone.
He waved towards his seventh cousin and said, "I'll go with you when Granny Qin Mi calls me."
Uncle Seven was about to refuse, so I immediately opened my mouth and shouted, "The girl from the Long family who is buried in the snake coffin must be willing, right?"
When I saw his face change, I knew I was right, and sneered, "Do you believe me or not, I have plenty of ways to seek death?"
My cousin started to kidnap my parents, but he couldn’t find the snake coffin.
But later on, when we were at the grave, he still let me jump in by myself.
If my cousin wanted to tie me up and bury me in a snake coffin, he could have just knocked me out with a stick, or killed me and thrown me in. I'm going to die anyway, so why make so much trouble?
And Liu Longting was the same. He poisoned me with some kind of snake poison and killed people to force me to submit. In fact, he just wanted me to voluntarily do that with him.
I don't know why this is, but it seems to be the case.
My parents must have known this, otherwise they wouldn't have left with peace of mind. After all, I might still be buried in a snake coffin.
"I didn't expect you to be able to guess this." The seventh cousin laughed coldly and waved to the person next to him: "Let him go."
Two big men immediately picked up my grandmother and carried her out of the village.
I called Qin Mipo and confirmed that someone had been arranged to meet me outside.
Less than half an hour later, Qin Mipo called and said, "I got it. I've already taken it to our village."
My seventh cousin obviously also answered the phone and waved his hand, and several relatives immediately surrounded me.
This time they were really determined and tied them up tightly.
The snake coffin had been found and I was tied up, so they had nothing to worry about.
The seventh cousin gave a deep shout and began the funeral procession.
The entire funeral procession was very strange. Each coffin was carried by eight people using a bamboo pole, and with every step, someone would knock on the bamboo pole.
Next to each coffin there were several people carrying loads, and the loads were covered tightly so that you couldn't see what was inside.
Next to the coffin, there will be a person wearing gloves and carrying a snakeskin bag, and no one knows what is inside the bag.
My seventh cousin was holding the spirit tablet in front, and every few steps he would raise his head and shout in a deep voice.
The one carrying the snakeskin bag would put his gloved hand into the bag, actually take out a snake from it, and then hold the snake's head and cut it off with scissors.
Then he held the snake's tail upside down and dragged the snake's body with severed head forward. The snake's blood dripped onto the road. When the blood had almost dried up, he hung the dead snake on the coffin.
When they saw the seventh cousin raising his head and shouting again, they started to dig out the snake, cut its head, drain its blood, and build the coffin...
Women like Aunt Liu were all holding bamboo sticks and beating them nearby, but they were not crying.
It seems that Aunt Liu's son opened a big factory outside, so he has a lot of influence.
He squeezed next to me and explained to me: "You young people have never seen a funeral, right?"
"This is called a snake pressing the coffin. It is passed down from generation to generation, and each generation is stronger than the last. Every time a snake is pressed, his family will become more prosperous. This can be regarded as their contribution to the village, so we should repay them." Aunt Liu seemed a little emotional.
My hands and feet were tied, and I felt a little sympathy for the people who were taking snakes and killing them near the coffin.
The black snake jade bracelet on his wrist turned, and Mo Xiu seemed to have no interest in saving people or snakes.
The funeral procession went towards the back mountain amid the sound of bamboo sticks being struck.
Just when I thought that the dead villagers should at least be buried in the ancestral tomb, they went directly to the grave pit.
There was an empty coffin beside the grave. My seventh cousin pointed at me and said, "Long Ling, this is for you."
I didn't expect them to be so well prepared!
The seventh cousin laughed: "Where do you think your parents can go? They have never left the province in their entire lives. Where can they go to work?"
Does he mean that my parents are also in his hands?
I was a little anxious for a moment and wanted Mo Xiu to help me untie the ropes.
Aren’t these people afraid of revenge from snakes?
But the seventh uncle waved his hand, and several relatives took out flamethrowers from the carrying poles they were carrying.
The entire funeral procession gathered together in an instant and surrounded me and the empty coffin with their coffins.
"Long Ling, now that we're here, you crawl in by yourself and we'll each use a shovel to bury you. The whole village can do it, and no one will blame anyone." Seventh cousin stood outside the coffin.
He looked at me and said, "You should be satisfied. If the coffin-suppressing snake Liu Longting gets angry, we will use these few people and so many living people to bury him with him."
"Don't worry this time. Even if a snake comes out of the snake coffin, we are well prepared." Seventh Uncle pointed at the flamethrowers.
These people are engaged in feudal superstition and have also come up with high technology.
"I'll untie the rope for you and take you running." Mo Xiu snorted coldly in my ear.
But looking at so many flamethrowers, I can't run away.
"I'll protect you." The black snake jade bracelet on my wrist climbed up my arm and whispered in my ear, "These fires can't hurt you."
By now, Qin Mipo should have taken grandma back to their village. Although all the Qin family members have died out, they still have relatives.
Although Qin Mipo Wenmi is not well-known, her aunt has helped many people. People in Huilong Village dare not go to other villages to rob people.
I looked at my seventh cousin, and just as I was about to nod.
Suddenly, a laugh was heard, and then Long Xia, wearing a white dress, walked out of the woods.
As soon as I saw him, I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned to his ear: "Let's take a look first, at least we have to know what a snake woman is."
As soon as I learned that my grandmother was captured by my seventh cousin, I sent a WeChat message to Long Xia to tell her that the village was going to take action on the snake coffin.
I don't know what a snake coffin is, nor do I know what a snake lady is. Long Xia was glaring at me covetously. From what my grandmother said, the snake lady came out of the coffin to take revenge on the villagers.
Didn’t Seventh Cousin not believe that Long Xia came out of the snake coffin?
I'll let him see it!
Long Xia walked normally in the hospital, but when she walked out of the woods, she looked weird and charming.
Not only did he twist his body every three steps when he walked, but he also opened his mouth and spit out something with every step.
"Long Xia...Long Xia!" Aunt Liu and other women were the first to become frightened.
“Snake woman! Snake woman!” Aunt Liu started to scream and turned to run out: “The snake woman is out. She wants to take revenge on the village.”
