Chapter 0028: What is the guilt of the people?
Even after death, Lao Zhou's eyes were still so cruel that they made my heart numb, as if he was going to kill me until his death.
I stepped back slightly, my back leaning against Mo Xiu, but there was nowhere to retreat.
"Don't be afraid, he is just a fortune teller. The blood and essence he just took has already drained his vitality." Mo Xiu stretched out his hand and covered my eyes with his wide sleeves.
But even when looking at Mo Xiu's black robe with dark scales and dyed gold, what flashed before my eyes was still Lao Zhou's deep roar like a ghost demanding his life, and his bloodshot eyes filled with anger.
All three relatives died, and all the neighbors suffered...
Since there is no escape, what else is there to hide from?
I slowly pulled open Mo Xiu's sleeves and looked at the fallen Old Zhou and the dead little snakes.
The young Taoist priest covered his eyes with his hands and whispered something.
After a while, he stopped and said, "Old Zhou, seven days ago, I was asked to come here to look for someone."
"He has a keen eye for fortune-telling and is well aware of opportunities. You have been missing these days, so he is waiting for you there." The young man took out a pair of peach wood hexagrams from his bag, divided them into yin and yang, and placed them on Lao Zhou's eyes.
He turned his head and looked at me: "Long Ling, Lao Zhou saw through the secrets of heaven, but was deeply involved in them, so he wanted to kill you. But his predictions have never been wrong."
"The one who asked him to come was Mr. Hu? The Feng Shui master who helped Huilong Village relocate graves?" I blinked. "He ran away. It's enough for him to be alive. Why let others die?"
"Since he claims to have a divine eye, he should know that he will die here. He should have done the same as Mr. Hu and run away to save his life. Why did he come here? Is he looking for death?" I felt a chill in my heart and opened the door and walked out.
According to what the young Taoist priest meant, I should do as Lao Zhou said and die so as not to harm others.
But was it me who caused Lao Zhou’s death?
He was the one who asked to calculate my birth date and time; the snake that he vomited out of his body was not because of me!
Mo Xiu saved him, but he still tried his best to kill me!
And Mr. Hu who asked him to come, since he ran away, why let others die again!
On the opposite side of the bridge, those people no longer gathered in groups, but looked over here. When they saw me come out, they immediately turned around and left, as if they had seen the god of plague.
I pushed my electric scooter and went straight to Qin Mipo's house.
Niu Er picked up some tea ears from somewhere and smiled at me: "Long Ling, eat tea ears, and your ears won't be deaf."
I glanced at him, went to the bed inside, carried grandma on my back, found two pieces of clothes, tied her on my back, and walked out.
"Where do you want to take her?" Qin Mi Po looked at me while holding a rice sieve and said in a deep voice, "She can't move."
"Long Xia won't let her die." I carried my grandmother on my back and staggered onto the electric scooter: "I'll take her to the hospital for a checkup."
With technology so advanced nowadays, are you still afraid of a few snakes?
I rode my electric scooter to the town hospital. The silk snake on the back of her neck had not come out again, and the doctor took an X-ray but couldn't find anything.
"Did my grandmother give birth?" I finally asked this question.
The attending doctor was a man. He looked at me in surprise and said, "Isn't she your grandmother? She is infertile, so where did your father and you come from?"
"My father is not my biological son, but my grandmother has some problems with her brain now. She always says that she gave birth to a child. I just want to confirm whether she did. If so, we will help her find it." I tried hard to think of a reason.
The attending physician expressed his understanding and called a gynecologist to join the consultation.
Later, he told me: "Your grandmother was born with blocked fallopian tubes, which have never been cleared, so she probably never gave birth. Maybe she's old, so her memory is a little confused."
"Thank you!" I found myself able to remain calm.
I closed the door of the ward, lay down beside the bed, and looked at my grandma.
I helped her tidy up her clothes and suddenly felt like I was stuck in a huge quagmire.
Suddenly I understood why Mo Xiu and Liu Longting wouldn't let me look at the woman upstairs. My worldview was shattered and my worldview collapsed...
I'm almost there now!
If my father was not my grandmother's biological son, the wives married into Huilong Village would be infertile.
So, where did all these uncles and aunts with numbers come from?
My family’s page was the only one missing from the roster. Was it not on the list, or was it taken away?
I can't find my mother's birth date or her family situation.
I don’t even know where I came from. If my mother is infertile, even the so-called surging tide of snakes when I was born might all be a lie.
Because when I was born, there was no birth certificate, it was just based on the verbal statements of the villagers. How can I prove its authenticity now?
The nurse prescribed some medicine for my grandmother and said that the cause of her coma had not yet been found, and suggested that I go to a big hospital.
I knew the medicine was useless, but I still did as the nurse asked and fed the medicine to my grandma.
But I didn't dare to go to the hospital, because I didn't know what would happen to the silk snake in my grandma's body.
So I had to go back to Qin Mi's house without telling my grandmother. When she saw me coming back, it seemed like she had expected it.
But when I entered the room, Mo Xiu and the young Taoist priest were both sitting at the table in Qin Mipo's house.
When the young Taoist priest saw my grandmother, he immediately asked, "Is this the silk snake that came out of the snake coffin?"
Mo Xiu said to me in a deep voice: "What is the fault of the Wentian Sect?"
Qin Mipo was standing by and helped me put grandma down.
I looked at He Gu and said in a deep voice, "Ask Tian Jiu, what guilt have the people committed?"
The name sounds like it was taken from "Nine Questions".
"That's right." He Gu bowed to me and said in a clear voice, "I follow the master's order to protect Lao Zhou all the way and find out the truth about the snake coffin in Huilong Village."
Qin Mipo and I helped grandma onto the bed and slowly lifted the hair from the back of her neck. "The silk snake has entered her body. Do you have any way to remove it?"
He Gu shook his head: "I want to take a look first."
"What guilt have the common people committed? You and Snake King can watch together." I looked at He Gu with a sneer, then looked at Mo Xiu, then walked out and sat on the steps with Niu Er.
It was almost dusk. In the distance, smoke rose from cooking fires and birds returned to their nests. The warm golden sunset shone on the green rice fields, creating a beautiful effect.
But these have nothing to do with me anymore.
Once night falls, the snake's venom takes effect, and the itching and calling sound always make me want to rush out...
Niu Er handed me a thicker, whiter piece of tea ear and said, "This is delicious."
I took it and put it in my mouth. Although it was crispy and slightly sweet at first, after savoring it, my mouth was still so bitter that I felt like I couldn't open it.
Niu Er was still picking and choosing among the handful of tea, and gave me the good ones: "You eat."
I looked at him. He was born on the same day as me, but he didn't look that old.
Mo Xiu and He Gu seemed to be discussing how to get the silk snake. I boiled some water and let Niu Er take a bath.
Granny Qin Mi found two old razors and started sharpening them: "Before I asked for rice, I would shave the hair of a full-month-old fetus. At that time, shaving the hair was to be sealed. Now..."
As she was sharpening the razor, she started to cough and handed me an old razor that had not been sharpened yet: "I'll give it to you for self-defense. This one belongs to my aunt. She was the one who taught me to shave people's hair."
Qin Mipo's family didn't have any suitable clothes, so Niu Er came out wearing Qin Mipo's old clothes.
I was sharpening the razor and watching Qin Mipo coaxing Niu Er with some dried sweet potatoes. I held the razor in my right hand and pulled his hair with my left hand, shaving it loudly. In a short while, my hair was done.
Then he used the razor to shave off Niu Er's messy beard, and it didn't even affect Niu Er's eating of dried sweet potatoes, which showed that his technique was skillful.
After shaving, Qin Mipo bent over and started coughing violently.
I held the razor and looked at Niu Er's fallen hair. I patted Qin Mipo's back, then wiped Niu Er's face and removed the fallen hair and beard.
Under the messy hair and beard was a face in the prime of youth, but Niu Er was just chewing dried sweet potatoes and grinning at me.
After taking care of Niu Er, I touched the razor and recalled how Qin Mipo shaved my hair.
Mo Xiu and He Gu seemed to be trying to find a way to get the silk snake out of my grandmother's brain, so they didn't leave the room.
I cooked and called them.
Mo Xiu doesn't need to eat, and He Gu has to be a vegetarian and not eat after noon, so he doesn't eat either.
It was not until the evening that He Gu came out, as if he was going to meditate.
Grandma Qin Mi cooked last night's rice and replaced it with freshly harvested rice for me.
I was about to sit back in the barrel when Mo Xiu came out and stood aside, looking at me: "If it doesn't work, call me."
The cold rice slowly sprinkled on my body, and I soaked it in little by little: "Have you found a solution?"
Mo Xiu shook his head and was about to say something when his expression suddenly changed: "Not good!"
"She ran away, she ran away!" Niu Er shouted outside: "Long Ling, your grandma ran away. Don't run away ..."
I hurriedly got up from the wooden barrel and saw my grandmother walking very fast. She didn't even walk, but waded directly into the rice field and ran in one direction.
He Gu, who was meditating, rushed out immediately: "Maybe when I was giving acupuncture today, I injured the silk snake, and the snake coffin and the snake lady sensed it. They were afraid that I would force it out, so they came out. I'll go chase it first!"
I took a look at the direction my grandma was running, went back into the house, got the net, and rode my electric scooter to chase her.
As I was holding the handlebars, Mo Xiu transformed into a black snake jade bracelet and wrapped it around my wrist.
Niu Er was shouting from behind, as if he wanted to catch up.
By the evening, Qin Mipo was coughing so hard that she was about to die, so she held him back.
I rode my electric scooter straight towards the grave. Whether it was the snake coffin, the snake lady, or Liu Longting, their destination was here.
When I arrived, I saw that my grandmother had lost all her clothes.
Standing beside the grave, he turned his head and looked at me: "Long Ling, I've been waiting for you for so long, come quickly. Come quickly..."
And her hands and feet were arched, or twisted, in a strange way.
On her back, snake heads protruded from both sides of her body.
It was as if there was a snake in every vertebra of the spine, and as if all the ribs in grandma's body were replaced with these silk snakes.
All the snake heads turned towards me, hissing and spitting out their tongues. Their voices were ethereal, and they seemed to be hissing and calling me: "Long Ling, Long Ling."
