Chapter 129 Startling Snake/Divination

Shen Jin and Shen Yin returned quickly. The two brothers cleaned some fresh herbs in the kitchen and crushed them with a stone mortar. When it was time to apply the medicine, they had to remove their clothes. Mrs. Li sent several children out and asked them to close the door. She struggled to take off her clothes and apply the medicine herself.

There were parts of her back she couldn’t reach, but she couldn’t let her son help with the medicine.

At this moment, the person who should have taken care of her the most was nowhere to be seen. Mrs. Li remembered the two months of hard labor she had endured before, and she felt a deep sense of coldness and loneliness in her heart.

She used to be pleased with Shen San’s indifference and selfishness. But now, looking at where it had led them, she even provoked him to be more indifferent.

Thinking back, it was truly laughable. Perhaps she had never truly understood her bed companion. Did she really need to provoke all those things over the years?

It was only now that Mrs. Li realized how foolish she had been.

She put on her padded jacket, lay on the bed, covered herself with a quilt, and closed her eyes, unwilling to open them again.

The door was knocked several times. It was Shen Tie, accompanied by his daughter, Shen Tian, coming to see her. She responded, allowing them to enter, and then pretended to be asleep, not speaking anymore.

Shen Tie stayed with Shen Tian in the room, while Shen Jin and Shen Yin went to their family’s storage room for food.

The two brothers looked at the meager food supplies in silence.

Shen Yin was somewhat nervous. “Brother, this little food won’t last. What should we do in the future?”

Shen Jin remained relatively calm and comforted his brother, “Don’t worry, we can gather wild vegetables. Big brother and sister-in-law taught me a lot of edible wild vegetables. We can eat fresh ones and dry some for later. If we really can’t bear it, we’ll eat the grains, but let’s store more wild vegetables.”

Big brother and sister-in-law taught him so much, and since this place was surrounded by mountains, he would definitely survive.

Shen Yin nodded. The two brothers quietly told Shen Tie to take care of Shen Tian and then went out with baskets on their backs, carrying small hoes and sickles.

As they walked out of the courtyard, Shen Yin suddenly said, “Brother, when our family just split up last year, didn’t Second Brother and Sister-in-law live the same way we do now?”

Their situation had reversed.

Shen Jin grunted and remembered himself back then, truly clueless.

He remained silent with his head down for a while before saying, “I hope our eldest brother and sister-in-law are safe in the mountains.”

…

In Yun Valley, Shen Ning saw that some of her little friends looked a bit down. Among the girls, except for the big girl who had been working hard and didn’t play with them much, she was the eldest. She threw down the grass in her hand, clapped her hands, and said, “Let’s go pick wild vegetables. When I went to see the cave just now, I saw some violet cloud flowers and mustard greens, which are particularly delicious.”

The attention of several little girls was indeed diverted, and they all got up.

Xu Wenyin had eaten mustard greens before, but what about violet cloud flowers?

She thought about it and asked, “What’s that?”

Chen Xiaoya smiled, “It’s a kind of grass that grows in spring and can be used for cooking. It’s very delicious.”

The four little girls held hands and ran towards the cave, looking for small baskets.

The big ones couldn’t carry baskets, but there were a few small baskets. The children with less strength held them in their hands, managing to bring them along.

Shen Ning, Chen Xiaoya, and Shi Qiao’er recognized their own things. They quickly emptied the small baskets, grabbed Xu Wenyin’s hand, and ran outside.

Shi Erlang’s wife glanced sideways and asked, “Where are you going?”

Shi Qiao’er smiled, “Mother, we’re going to pick wild vegetables.”

Everyone laughed. Mrs. Chen instructed, “Just follow the adults. Don’t go into the deep grass. There might be snakes.”

The children crisply agreed and soon ran to the place where Shen Lie and the others had just weeded.

Indeed, the adults knew how to live. They piled the grass together, separating the ones suitable for wild vegetables. When the children came, it was truly just picking.

Xu Wenyin finally knew what violet cloud flowers looked like and saw the raw mustard greens. She followed Shen Ning and the others, picking happily.

Picking wild vegetables was much faster than weeding. Even though the weeding group consisted of young and strong people, they couldn’t match the children’s efficiency. Soon, they caught up with the first group of children who had just weeded the first section.

When Shen Ning and the others were close to them, they were about to say hello when they heard the children in front shouting and running in all directions, “Snake! There’s a snake! Snake!”

Xu Wenyin stopped in her tracks, her face pale. “Where’s the snake?”

Panicked and not knowing what to do, she stood still, but she saw Shen An and the group of boys scattering and reaching for their weapons.

Hmm, when they stood up and aimed in one direction, Xu Wenyin realized that they were holding stones. Each of them had grabbed several stones in their hands and accurately threw them in one direction. Obviously, the snake was at the center of their stone throwing.

As they threw, they shouted, “Quick, quick, aim properly!”

“Over here, over here, it’s coming this way.”

Some of the timid ones were screaming, but it didn’t affect their speed of throwing stones. On the contrary, they threw even harder. With their hands empty, they hurriedly picked up more stones from the ground. In this mountainous area, there were plenty of stones, so they never ran out.

Xu Wenyin didn’t know what to do. She wanted to retreat but didn’t dare. She wanted to ask Shen Ning and the others, but found that they were too absorbed, even the youngest Shi Qiao’er began to pick up stones and cautiously move closer to the boys to help.

She was indeed cautious. Compared to Xu Wenyin, she kept a little more distance from the boys.

Then Xu Wenyin watched as her three little companions threw stones one after another towards the center.

“Quick, quick, it moved, it moved!”

“Surround it, surround it, throw towards this side, don’t let it come over! Ahh!”

Truly, they were both afraid and fierce.

Hmm, maybe it was because they were afraid that they were so fierce, afraid of the snake getting close to people.

Xu Wenyin was already stunned. Her little friends were so brave.

She had never actually seen a snake, but everyone had been warning about snakes along the way. They had to apply medicine powder on their legs and shoes every day, sprinkle some powder when resting, and even spread it on the tree trunks and roofs of the treehouses at night.

It felt like something very scary. Xu Wenyin didn’t understand. How could something so scary make them dare to charge forward? Shouldn’t they be running away?

Her mind was spinning wildly. Should she run away quickly, stand still, or join in and throw a few stones?

While she hesitated, Shen Ning and the others had already bent down to pick up stones for the third round. With over a dozen children, each throwing at least a dozen stones.

Xu Wenyin thought, would this kill it?

Curiosity made her loosen her grip on her feet, bend her waist, pick up a large stone for defense, and then take a step forward, and another step. Then she followed suit, taking slow steps closer to Shen Ning and the others.

As she got closer, she finally saw clearly. The scene she saw made Xu Wenyin burst into tears, and the two stones in her hands fell to the ground in fright, narrowly missing her feet.

The adults in the distance, who had just heard that there was a snake coming their way, were startled when they suddenly heard Xu Wenyin crying loudly. They wondered if she had been bitten by the snake.

Mrs. Xu and Wei Qinghe, who were coming over, were also taken aback by the sudden cry. Mrs. Xu, at her age, almost stumbled as she hurried over.

When they got closer, they found that the snake was at least a yard away from their granddaughter, and its body was split in half, and its head was smashed to pieces.

There might be other snakes around, so they quickly checked their granddaughter, especially her legs and feet. “What’s wrong? Did it bite you?”

Xu Wenyin finally dared to move and buried her head in her grandmother’s arms, crying and saying between sobs, “No, it didn’t bite me. I’m just scared, grandmother, its head is gone but it’s still moving, wuwuwu.”

Mrs. Xu glanced at the snake, bloody and split in half, its head separated from its body but still wriggling. It was weirdly disgusting. She felt her scalp tingle and patted her granddaughter. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, ah, let’s go back.”

She shielded her granddaughter from seeing the snake again and headed back to the big cave.

The group of sturdy village children were dumbfounded.

They forgot about the snake.

Of course, there was no need to worry about it now. They were all far away, and the snake’s head was crushed by a stone, its body still wriggling. It was gross and frightening, but that’s how snakes were. They didn’t die quickly, and they could keep moving for a while.

None of the brats in the village had ever cried out of fear, not even the girls.

It wasn’t that they weren’t afraid; they just didn’t have time to be afraid. The more afraid they were, the faster they needed to act to keep themselves safe, right?

Each of the kids who had grabbed stones and then grabbed their hairpins stood there, confused by Xu Wenyin’s sudden burst of tears.

Wang Yunzheng and Xu Wenbo were a little confused too. The two cousins hadn’t reacted at all before, but they followed everyone’s lead when they heard about the snake. They didn’t have time to be afraid, but now seeing their cousin/sister cry like this, they looked at each other in confusion. Xu Wenbo hurriedly said, “My sister has never seen a snake.”

Actually, he hadn’t either.

Now, looking at the snake, which had been split into three parts and was still wriggling, it was indeed a bit frightening. Xu Wenbo swallowed his saliva and dared not look anymore. “I’ll go check on my sister.”

With that said, everyone realized what had happened. Shen Ning also ran, “Yes, yes, I’ll go check on Wenyin.”

She had been too busy helping just now and hadn’t paid attention to Xu Wenyin. Of course, she hadn’t expected her to be scared to tears.

As they ran back, they didn’t forget to pick up the baskets that had been left aside. As for the snake, well, they didn’t dare to approach it. The adults were here now, and they would take care of it. The group of children ran back to the big cave.

In the big cave, Xu Wenyin was still crying, but her voice had become much softer. Obviously, being away from there and having elders around made her feel a lot more secure.

The adults had also gathered back. Lu Erlang had taken the snake away for disposal, of course, not bringing it into the cave to scare the children again.

But Sang Luo thought of something else when she saw Xu Wenyin crying. She walked over to Shen Lie and said, “You and a few others from the Great Mountain should go out now and seal off the entrance of the cave. Stand at different positions around the surrounding peaks, at the foot, middle, and top of the mountains. Let the children make some noise in different places, and see if you can hear them.”

This was very important.

The mountain forest was so vast, it might not only be them who had escaped here. Although the mountains were thick and high, for the sake of safety, they didn’t even dare to raise chickens themselves. If they wanted peaceful days, they couldn’t expose themselves in their daily lives. Sound propagation was affected by various environmental factors, and Sang Luo couldn’t calculate it accurately, so they had to test it artificially to feel at ease and establish a safe line behind them.

Shen Lie understood immediately, “The mountains around here are very high. Just the peaks around the canyon are at least two to three hundred yards high. It will take some time to climb up. We’ve tested it before, and the sound from inside the cave is relatively weak at the two entrances.”

If it’s two to three hundred yards, that’s six to seven hundred meters to nearly a kilometer. Sang Luo was dumbfounded, wondering why she couldn’t see the top when she looked up. If they had to climb up, even if they let Shen Lie climb, it probably wouldn’t be possible in half an hour, right? Sang Luo couldn’t estimate it well, but such a high mountain, especially one that was particularly steep, would be extremely difficult to climb.

Since Shen Lie had tried, they could forget about this option. She said, “Then let’s try other locations at the foot and middle of the mountain.”

Naturally, Shen Lie didn’t hesitate. He and Chen Dashan tested, of course, not as thorough as dozens of people testing inside and outside at different points. After discussing roughly which locations to test, they called people to go out with them.

When they heard they were going to test the sound, Xu Wenyin stopped crying, finally realizing that her crying just now might not have been appropriate.

Sang Luo teased her with a smile, “You can cry later.”

Xu Wenyin was stunned and subconsciously sniffled, “I, I can’t cry anymore.”

Mrs. Xu chuckled.

Shen Ning and the others also laughed. It was Shitou and Sanniu who approached with a smile, “Sister Aluo, do you want us to cry? Can we do it without tears? We can.”

Howling? They could all do it.

Sang Luo laughed, “No need for tears, just howl. You’ll be the ones to howl later when I tell you to.”

The two little ones seemed to have received an important task, puffing out their chests and patting each other’s hands, “We promise to howl well!”

The youngest, Axu, also spoke up, “Sister Aluo, I can cry too.”

This made Feng Liuniang double over with laughter, while the older kids like Huzi, Erniu, and Danniu laughed heartily.

Seeing the older ones and these three little ones laughing, Sang Luo pointed at them and smiled, “None of you can run away. Stand in different places. You’ll all howl when I tell you to.”

The kids couldn’t laugh this time. It was now Shitou and the other two who covered their mouths and laughed.

Sang Luo then said to Feng Liuniang and the others, “Sisters, take care later. Don’t run into snakes or anything else.”

After a minute or two, they all set off. The women and children in the valley were mobilized. People were arranged to stand at intervals in the valley, including inside the cave. When everyone was ready, Sang Luo stood at the entrance of the canyon, facilitating communication with Shen Lie outside.

Shen Lie calculated that it was about time for everyone to find their positions. He spoke to Sang Luo through a small gap in the unsealed part of the cave entrance and signaled that they could start.

Sang Luo directly instructed Zhou Cunzheng, who was helping with messages, to inform the children to start howling loudly.

Shitou, Sanniu, and Axu, along with Qiuer and Xiaoya, the younger ones, cooperated the most. Initially, the older ones were a bit embarrassed, but after the first howl, they got more and more excited, stretching their necks and taking it as a fun game.

Sang Luo silently counted. After they had howled for about three minutes, she instructed Zhou Cunzheng to inform the children to gather together, and without doing anything else, she had Shen An lead them in reciting a thousand-word essay.

Starting from the deepest part of the Yun Valley, they moved from one place to another, each reciting a segment. They recited fluently, their voices synchronized.

Wang Yunzheng, Xu Wenbo, and Wei Qing were all stunned.

The kids from Shili Village… Were they this capable? How come they were all literate?

Mrs. Xu was also stunned. She had said before that these children had been sent to private schools to study, which didn’t seem possible. Several families were not very wealthy and couldn’t afford private schools. But didn’t her son say something before?

He said Sang Luo probably came from a good family?

Seeing that Shen An was leading the recitation, even Shen Ning, the little girl, was very familiar with it. Mrs. Xu felt she had found the answer. These kids from several families were probably taught to read by Sang Luo.

What luck! Their fortunes were truly incomparable. Who knows what they did in their past lives to accumulate such good karma.

In this day and age, it wasn’t easy to be literate. Like her son, because he could read and had some skill, he could become the head shopkeeper. Mrs. Xu knew very well the benefits of being literate.

Sang Luo didn’t know about the astonishment of the Xu family. Leading everyone to fuss around for half a day, she tried everything that needed to be tried. Shen Lie then moved the large stone at the entrance and returned to the valley. The people who had been taken out also gradually returned.

After asking one by one, when the children collectively howled with their necks stretched out, the people in other places around the mountain couldn’t hear any sound. However, at the entrance of the canyon, it was possible to faintly hear it. The sealed entrance halfway up the mountain could be heard at certain times, probably when the children were closest to the cave halfway up the mountain.

However, if they were just studying normally without shouting, it was probably only Shen Lie standing at the entrance of the valley who could hear something when they were at the outer periphery. Near the inner circle and the middle of the canyon, they couldn’t hear anything.

All the adults looked at the children. “Did you hear that? We came here to avoid trouble. We can’t shout and scream inside anymore. When studying, you don’t need to shout like you just did. That was to see if people outside could hear us. Be careful in the future. If we attract people here, none of us can expect to have peaceful days. We don’t even know if we’ll lose our lives.”

The children were all taught a lesson. Today, they were all startled by the snake they saw all of a sudden and forgot about it. They all expressed that they would pay attention in the future, even Xu Wenyin repeatedly promised, “I won’t cry anymore.”

Sang Luo smiled and pinched her cheek, then turned to Zhou Cunzheng and the others, “I think in the next few days, we should clean up an area in the deepest part of the valley for the children to play in. It’s too dark in the cave, and we don’t know how long we’ll stay here. We can’t let the children stay in the cave all day. Otherwise, they’ll become dull. There are a few trees flourishing in the deepest part of the valley. It’s just right to build a pavilion there later and set up some tables and chairs. The children can play or study there. As long as they don’t make too much noise, normal communication and learning are no problem. Plus, if you look down from the top of the mountain, all you can see is trees.”

In fact, Shen Lie said that you can’t see people clearly when looking down from the top of the mountain, unless it is a house, it will be more conspicuous. This is also the reason why Sang Luo asked to build the pavilion under the tree, using the tree for concealment.

As for using the land under other trees to build houses? That’s out of the question. With so many families in here, for farming families, farming is the basis of survival. How much land is there in this valley? It’s not even enough to grow crops.

When Sang Luo suggested clearing a place for the children to play and study, everyone was happy. There couldn’t be a better suggestion. As parents and grandparents, no one wanted their children to have to be careful every day, either hiding in the cave or speaking in whispers.

Zhou Cunzheng said, “This is good. We should go pick up the grain soon. You can clear the grass so there are no more snakes hiding in it. As for those pavilions and tables and chairs, after we finish transporting the grain, we’ll go out and get some wood to make them.”

What made him especially happy was that all the children from several families were literate. With this kind of environment, his two mischievous little ones at home might take more interest in reading and writing.

Hadn’t he just seen them stunned while listening to Shen An and the other kids reciting the thousand-character essay so fluently? Normally, they weren’t interested in learning characters at all. But now, mixed in with the literate kids, they wouldn’t want to be embarrassed and would likely be more motivated to study in the future.

Zhou Cunzheng was particularly pleased.