Chapter 4: Retreating the Snake

She had always dreamed of escaping the cramped city life to live in seclusion somewhere.

A small house, an acre of land, a puppy, and a billion in savings…
It seemed like only that kind of life could redeem her.
But she had already been drowned in a sea of traffic and towering buildings.

Fortunately, death brought her a second chance—she landed in a completely unfamiliar era.

Looking at the beautiful scenery surrounding her modest home, she felt refreshed and invigorated.
Truly, even ordinary places can hold wonders!

In her past life, she had been alone ever since her grandparents passed away.
Now, what was there to fear about starting over?

“Mom, let me have Gou Wang (Dog Wang),” she said.

She tossed two bottles of warmed milk into her space, then went to pick up the baby.
Cradling Gou Wang, she turned and walked out of the house.

She fed the baby with one hand while her feet didn’t stop moving,
making a loop around the house front and back.

When she looked down, she saw the little one had fallen asleep with the bottle nipple still in his mouth.
She smiled warmly.

She wanted to explore the mountains to look for food.
Living by the mountain meant never worrying about going hungry!

She handed Gou Wang to Mother Yu and greeted her on the way out.

“Yao Niu, be careful this time. Don’t fall again,”
Mother Yu said worriedly when she heard she was heading to the back mountain.

“Got it! I’ll be extra careful.”

She found a small hoe and a basket in the yard.
Then grabbed a rope nearby—she’d use it to tie the basket later.

With the hoe on her shoulder, she headed for the mountain.

The scenery along the way was lovely, the breeze gentle, and the air was filled with the fresh scent of nature.
Before long, she had climbed the first hill—it wasn’t very tall.
There was dappled shade from overlapping trees, overgrown weeds, and the sounds of birds and cicadas.

Even after rummaging around for a while, she couldn’t find anything edible.
Wiping the light sweat from her forehead, she went further in!

At her feet was a patch of green—some wild vegetables she recognized and others she didn’t.

Suddenly, a bright idea struck her—didn’t she have a search engine in her mind?

She quickly opened the scanner in her system.
Within seconds, images of purslane  popped up.

Fried purslane with eggs—her grandmother used to make that for her all the time when she was little.
But after living in the city so long, she could barely remember what it looked like.

Now that she had the image, it wasn’t hard to find anymore.

She felt like she’d come here just to enjoy life—like she was a walking encyclopedia!

She collected about half a basket of purslane from the area.

“Hahaha—” Yu Nuan let out a joyful laugh. “It really didn’t take much effort at all!”

She wandered nearby and gathered a few more handfuls.

Then she turned into a shaded corner and spotted a large patch of jelly ear (地皮菜), also called wood ear fungus.

This one was easy to recognize—it’s great stir-fried with eggs and very fragrant.
She used to dig these up with classmates behind the school playground.

They were notoriously hard to clean, though.
But seeing a whole patch of them, she couldn’t stop grinning.

Rolling up her sleeves, she squatted down and began picking them.
Maybe no one had been through here, or the environment was just good—
the jelly ears were thriving, thick and healthy, with only a thin layer of fresh soil on them.

She carefully picked for a long while and gathered nearly half a basket.
Enough for two meals, easily.

She made sure to leave the bottom layer undisturbed—
after all, when living off the mountain, you have to let things grow back.

The sun was now high overhead, and her stomach started growling.
She pulled out the last bun from her storage space, swallowed her saliva, and ate half, saving the other half for later.

She walked a few more steps when a series of chirping sounds—“ji ji ji”—caught her attention.

Following the sound into the forest, she kept alert and scanned her surroundings.
After all, she didn’t know what kind of wild animals might lurk in this old forest.

Under a large tree, she spotted patches of dried blood on the grass—
judging from the looks of it, the blood had already congealed.

Could this have been a battlefield between beasts…?

She touched her forehead, a strange feeling rising—
it felt like the original host of this body had been here before.

“Ji ji ji—” The chirping came again from the grass nearby.

She crept over, squatting cautiously.

“Oh my god—!”

…

In front of her was a two-meter-deep pit, surrounded by wild grass.
No wonder she hadn’t noticed it earlier.

Inside the pit, two wild rabbits were frantically darting about in panic.
Directly opposite Yu Nuan, a thick snake was raising its head and flicking its tongue menacingly—staring straight at her.

Her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the ground.

“M-Mister Snake, I didn’t mean to intrude…” she muttered nervously, scooting backwards.

The snake lifted its head high, clearly poised to strike.

Seeing this, Yu Nuan scrambled to her feet and bolted in the opposite direction.
Only then did the snake lower its head to glance at the pit below.

But the pit was too deep and the walls too slippery.
It tried several times but couldn’t reach the bottom.

Yu Nuan ran halfway before she stopped, letting out a long sigh.
Her legs were like jelly—snakes, by nature, inspired a deep primal fear.

But when she thought about the rabbits in the pit, her lips pressed into a thin line.

This snake didn’t seem venomous—more like a python. It was too bulky.
She quickly searched her memory.

Opening the photo scan feature next to her internal search engine, she walked back a few steps and scanned the snake.

In the next second, its profile popped up:

“Black-Tailed Snake: A large, non-venomous snake. Its meat is delicious, skin good for leather, and it has both culinary and medicinal uses.”

Should she take the risk? If she succeeded, there’d be meat to eat…

She mentally prepared herself. With the elderly, the sick, and the young at home, she had to at least try.

Scanning her surroundings, she saw no other signs of danger aside from the big snake.

Gripping the hoe tightly, she approached the pit.

The moment it heard footsteps, the snake raised its head again, hissing with its tongue flicking.

She cautiously extended the hoe handle forward.

She had watched some snake-catching videos before—some foreign expert would distract the snake with a stick or hand…

Sure enough, the snake slid back a few inches.
Emboldened, Yu Nuan inched forward again.

The snake hissed and backed away further.

Just when she thought it might be letting her go, the snake suddenly lunged up the hoe handle toward her.

She had let her guard down—it really followed the stick!

The snake’s massive body almost dragged her into the pit.
She stumbled back in panic.

“Get away from me, damn it!!”

But in just a split second, the snake coiled around her arm—
then sank its fangs into her hard.

Her right arm was now tightly constricted by the snake, completely numb—she couldn’t even feel the pain anymore.

She silently mourned.

This is it. I’m done for!!

But remembering the saying “strike a snake at its seven-inch spot”,
and seeing it hadn’t fully wrapped around her yet,
she staggered back a few steps, grabbed the hoe with her left hand, squatted low, and kept her bitten arm level, trying not to look at the snake’s head.

Danger often unleashes hidden strength.

With a firm grip, she swung the hoe with all her might, slamming it onto the snake’s body.

Her arm immediately loosened.

But since she was using her non-dominant hand, the blow didn’t slice clean through—the hoe only cut halfway into the snake.

The snake struck back at her head, and she barely dodged.

She took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and—fighting through fear—grabbed the snake’s head with both hands.
Its coils tightened further around her.

Damn it! Why does it have to wrap so tightly?!

Suddenly, a thought struck her—didn’t she have all kinds of sprays in her space?

She pulled them out in one go and flung the snake’s head away.

Quick as lightning, she opened one spray nozzle and blasted it right in the snake’s face.

The snake paused, startled—then completely enraged.

Just as it reared up for another attack, Yu Nuan grabbed an alcohol spray and—

Sprayed again.

The snake froze in a daze for a few seconds. She didn’t hesitate—
whoosh whoosh whoosh—a few more sprays.

The snake began to loosen, its body sliding back slightly.

She seized the moment.

Right hand spraying, left hand pulling out a lighter—
she sprayed the alcohol again, then sparked the flame.

The alcohol ignited instantly—
the snake, terrified of open fire, immediately uncoiled and tried to slither into the grass.

But Yu Nuan wasn’t about to let it get away.

With lightning reflexes, she grabbed the hoe again and brought it down with full force.

This time, it worked.
The snake was finally split in two.