At this time, I didn't care about being in front of my cousin and the others. I hugged Sister Li tightly and put my head into her arms. Sister Li also hugged me tightly and stroked me gently with her hands. On his face, he murmured like he was coaxing a child: "It's okay, don't be afraid, we are all here. Well, don't be afraid, Xiao Ming, don't be afraid, it's okay."

Xiao Lei and his cousin quickly looked outside the window, and the big black cat, at some point, had jumped away from the window.

Hongmei brought me a cup of hot tea, then took out a thick blanket from the house, covered me with it, and said to me in a gentle voice: "Xiao Ming, your face is very pale, please drink some hot water." , and then he squeezed my hand tightly as if to comfort me.

My cousin and Xiao Lei also sat quietly next to me. They were not in a hurry to ask me anything, but were quietly waiting for my mood to stabilize.

After a long time, I calmed down a lot and told everything that had just happened. I could see the nervous expressions of my cousin, Xiaolei, Hongmei and Sister Li. Fortunately, I discovered it early this time. , otherwise, the consequences would be really unimaginable.

We never dreamed that Blind Man Gao had such a trick, and through this sneak attack, we also learned that the bloody fox actually obeyed Blind Man Gao, which was completely unexpected.

Also, I can't figure out why the big black cat cooperated with the fox and the blind man, as if he was hypnotized. This is really scary. We really don't know that the blind man has this ability. The ability to hypnotize animals.

But my cousin believed that based on his understanding of Blind Man Gao and the specific situation this time, he felt that it was not Blind Man Gao who could hypnotize the consciousness of the big black cat, but the blood fox. This was also the reason for Blind Man Gao's sneak attack. , the reason why he brought the blood fox, otherwise, there was no need for him to bring the fox.

My cousin's analysis was very reasonable, and then he told us such an incident, and this story was subtly similar to the incident we encountered today.

My cousin said that in the Ming Dynasty, there used to be a big python on our mountain. It not only ate other birds and animals, but also humans. People who went up the mountain to collect medicine were often eaten by it.

Officers and soldiers went up the mountain to search several times, but because of the high mountains and dense forests, they failed to find it several times. Although once, more than ten officers and soldiers finally found a python, but instead of catching it, the python swallowed four people.

Afterwards, local officials wanted to send more manpower, but the mountains were high and the forests were dense, and no matter how many people there were, they couldn't carry out the operation. In the end, the officials had no choice but to give up.

But in the surrounding mountains, there are many herb farmers who make a living by collecting herbs. Some of them have been herb farmers for generations. Apart from this, they have no other way of making a living, so they have no other choice but to risk their lives in the mountains to collect herbs. .

Over the past two or three years, forty or fifty drug farmers have been eaten in the villages in this area. Although the hunters here have organized more than ten people to round up pythons, two or three of them were swallowed by the pythons. , since then, no hunter dared to provoke this python.

At that time, in this mountainous area, when people talked about this python, they felt a bit like "talking about it". Everyone said that this was not an ordinary python, but the "mountain god" of this mountain. Therefore, some people gave it to them. This python has built a temple, and he often goes there to worship and pray. He hopes that this python will be merciful and stop harming the farmers who go into the mountains to collect medicine. If this python has other requests, he can show his spirit and tell the local people. The common people, no matter what, will be satisfied with it.

Of course, this has no effect, and the drug farmer is still eaten by the python.

Experienced hunters said that compared with other animals, human flesh is smooth and delicate, and has more oil than other wild animals. Therefore, once those carnivorous beasts have eaten human flesh, they will easily become obsessed with this "food" , they will also be more likely to attack people, and this python is also addicted to eating human flesh, so it will become more and more cruel to people.

Moreover, this kind of python has an extremely sensitive sense of smell. It can smell people's breath from several miles away. Therefore, as long as there is someone within a few miles of its location, it can quickly smell it and can smell it as soon as possible. It crawls towards people at extremely fast speeds, waiting for the opportunity to eat them.

Some people have seen the feces of this kind of python and said that this kind of feces is very scary. There are human bones and even human heads in it. It is the kind of head that has been half digested, but still has some skin, flesh and hair left.

The reason why this kind of big python is difficult to kill is because its skin is extremely thick. Even if it is chopped with a knife or an ax, it is difficult to really hurt it. Moreover, it is so powerful that it can easily break a tree as thick as a thigh, not to mention the human body. , as long as it is swept away, the bones and tendons will be broken.

But what no one expected was that the person who finally subdued the python turned out to be a child.

This child's parents died when he was young, so he was considered a poor boy who grew up wearing hundreds of clothes and eating hundreds of meals. Children from poor families have long been in charge of the family, and when they were about fourteen or fifteen years old, they began to go to the mountains to collect herbs.

Strange to say, four of the six herb collectors in their village were eaten by pythons, and one fell off a cliff while being chased by a python. Fortunately, he was caught on a branch and was not killed, but he was crippled after the fall. , could not walk, let alone go up the mountain to collect herbs, and the only remaining herb farmer was too scared to go up the mountain to collect herbs.

The village where this child lives is considered to be deep in the mountains, and the terrain is dangerous. Two or three miles away from the village, there is a completely uninhabited mountain forest within a few hundred miles. It is also the place where pythons are most active. Of course, that area is also One of the regions with the best quality herbal medicine.

But for some reason, that child still went into the mountains to collect herbs as usual every day. Sometimes he would bring dry food and water with him, and he would even stay in the mountains at night, only coming out every two or three days in a row.

Some well-meaning people in the village inevitably tried to persuade the child, saying that it was too dangerous to go into the mountains to collect medicine. If he was not careful, he would be eaten by the python, so it was best not to die.

After listening to these advices, the child just bowed and expressed his gratitude, and didn't say much else. However, he still went his own way and went to the mountains to collect herbs almost every day.

Because of the pythons, the output of medicinal materials in this area has dropped sharply. Now, the prices of medicines have risen. Some medicines are even four or five times more expensive than before. Stimulated by such high medicine prices, there are still continuous demand for medicines. Money-hungry medicine farmers go into the mountains to collect medicines, and there are constant reports of medicine farmers being eaten.

But during this period of time, this child went to the mountains more often than anyone else and stayed longer, but he never had any accidents. During this period of time, he also made a lot of money by collecting herbs.

This is really strange.

In the past, no one had paid attention to this inconspicuous child, and at the beginning, when some people saw that he went into the mountains to collect herbs every day and came back unscathed, they thought that this child was just stupid and bold, and he was just lucky. If he goes down, he will be eaten by a python sooner or later, but for a whole year, there are still news of pythons eating people nearby, but this child is still safe and sound.

As a result, more and more people believe that the fact that the child was not eaten by the python must not be due to luck, but there must be something unknown.

In the same village, there are two other orphans who are about the same age as this child. I don’t know who told these two orphans that pythons do not eat children under the age of 18, so the young man who collected the medicine, Only then could he go to the mountains to collect medicines for a year in a row, still be safe, and make a small fortune by selling medicines.

The two orphans believed this rumor, so they also decided to go into the mountains to collect medicine. They felt that they were about the same age as the child who was collecting medicine. Since the child was fine, they should be fine too. Taking advantage of the price of medicine, It’s expensive, I want to make some money quickly.

But after the orphans went into the mountains to collect medicine for the first time, they were never seen again. Everyone knew that they must have been eaten by a python. From then on, the rumor that "pythons don't eat children" spread. Nor will it defeat itself.

But why is this child the only one who is fine?

People couldn't figure it out. Some people also tried to ask the child himself, but they couldn't find out why. Whenever someone asked about the python, the child always said calmly that he had never seen any python.

However, this kind of thing slowly spread around this mountain, and everyone within a radius of hundreds of miles knew about this child.

Over time, this matter spread to the ears of the new local official, Zheng Yushi. Why did others call him Zheng Yushi even though he was a county magistrate?

Because this Zheng Yushi was originally an upright censor in the court. He could not help but be knowledgeable, upright and selfless, and hated evil. He was impeached and demoted to the county magistrate because he offended the treacherous ministers in the court, but others still He always called him Zheng Yushi to show his respect and admiration for him.

As soon as Zheng Yushi arrived in the county, he wanted to do something practical for the people. He had long heard that the python was a big pest to the local area. It caused panic among the local people and actually ate dozens of people. The number is still increasing.

So Zheng Yushi made up his mind to get rid of this python, but how to get rid of it. He thought of many plans and asked many local old hunters for advice, but this python was really difficult to deal with. No one can think of a practical solution.

When Zheng Yushi was at a loss what to do, he suddenly heard something "strange" about the child, and his heart moved. He vaguely felt that maybe the secret about the python could be discovered from this child.

Zheng Yushi immediately sent someone to find the child. However, he did not directly ask about the python like others, but started chatting with the child.

Although this child has been an orphan since he was a child, he seems to be very quiet and polite. Although he is a little nervous when meeting the official for the first time, he still knows how to salute and say hello, and he appears to be much more mature than other children of the same age.

Zheng Yushi kindly asked him to sit down, and like an elder, asked him about his living situation, and then chatted casually. The child seemed a bit reserved. When Zheng Yushi asked him, he would answer. Other than that, don't say a word more.
Chapter completed!