Chapter 39: The Grape That Attracts Snakes (Seeking Recommendations and Favorites)

  The taxi drove a few miles away, and Song Wen suddenly remembered that he still needed to buy some things. He hurriedly asked the taxi to stop, then turned around to buy some braised food at Ah Gen's Braised Food Store, and bought several roasted geese at Guang Ji Roasted Goose Store. After finding a secluded corner to put everything in his fan, he went to a large supermarket to buy a bunch of daily necessities before taking the taxi back.

  He returned to Songjia Village and found a secluded corner where no one was around, then quietly took out the things he had bought.

  He didn't want to be so secretive either, but there was no way around it. The matter of the Like-minded Fan couldn't be shared with others. After all, this was something beyond human imagination, and once people found out, the consequences would be unpredictable.

  Human nature is greedy, ignorance is true knowledge.

  Song Wen took out a portion of the braised sauce and roasted goose he had bought, and also gave a big teddy bear to Qiqi.

  Qiqi took over the big teddy bear and excitedly shouted loudly: "Thank you, uncle! Thank you, uncle!"

  Listening to her tender cries, Song Wen felt himself suddenly aging a lot.

  Now he can be called a leftover man, so hearing the sound of children calling him an elder is a bit harsh. Especially in the village, his family has a high rank, and some children in the village see him and call out "Uncle" or "Grandpa" with sweet voices. Some little brats even call him "Old Bachelor Uncle" or "Old Bachelor Grandpa", which makes him so angry that he wants to smoke. But he still has to force a smile on his face and say "Well done" to these little brats, occasionally giving them some candies as a reward, it's really frustrating.

  "What's wrong with you, buying so many things? With this money, it's better to keep it for yourself and get married."

  Song Hu saw him buying so many things over, but didn't take the hint.

  Song Wen didn't care about him and just said: "You don't know? I made a fortune today."

  "Anyone can talk big." Song Hu didn't believe it obviously.

  Song Wen saw that he didn't believe him, so he told him about the time he went to the city to have fun and accidentally bought a book at a stall for 100,000 yuan. He was still afraid that he wouldn't believe him, so he took out the photocopied version of "Yanghe Record" and showed it to him. The guy's eyes lit up instantly.

  "Really sold for 100,000 yuan?"

  "Why would I cheat you?"

  "The book you bought must be an antique, otherwise they wouldn't have quoted such a high price. You should bring it back and study it with me, maybe the price of that book is not just those." Song Hu said painfully.

  Song Wen scratched his ear, pretending he hadn't heard what was said. If he could figure out the reason why, he wouldn't have gone to pry off tiles from someone else's new house either.

  After talking for a while, Song Wen went towards his elder brother's house.

  Arrived home, took out another portion of braised flavor and roasted goose, and also gave a electronic gun to the little nephew.

  The little guy held it in his hand, excitedly shouting and playing. His mother couldn't help but nag him a few more times, saying he was wasting money. Song Wen just smiled and didn't say anything.

  After sitting at home for a while, Song Wen was about to go back up the mountain.

  Just as I was about to leave the house, I saw Yipeng, the son of my neighbor Jiumin, carrying a bunch of grapevines towards the trash can.

  He remembered that the grapes in his home grew quite well, and every year they could harvest a lot of grapes. How come such good things were cut off? He asked: "Aping, what did you do with the grape vines?"

  "Whatever."

  Yi Ping Zheng was about to throw away the grapevine when he heard someone asking a question. He turned his head and saw that it was Song Wen, so he lazily said.

  "Are grapes all right? Why did you cut them?"

  "My dad said there's a snake on the grape trellis," Ittetsu said helplessly.

  His family didn't want to cut down the grapevine, after all, they had planted it for so many years and had some feelings about it. Moreover, this grapevine produced a lot of grapes every year. But his father said there was a snake on the grapevine and it must be cut down.

  "Oh..." Song Wen heard this and became curious, so he walked towards his house, wanting to see what was going on.

  The houses on this side of Songjiabao New Village generally have a small courtyard in the back, which is left for the villagers to grow their own vegetables, raise pigs and chickens, and some people rely on their own small courtyards to grow their own food and eat it themselves, without having to go out to buy vegetables.

  When he arrived at the backyard, Song Wen saw that there were rows of green vegetables growing in the yard, and a chicken coop in one corner. Several chickens were curiously looking out from outside the coop.

  Under the grape arbor on one side, Yue Min was holding pruning shears to prune the grape vines.

  "Yue Min, why are you cutting down good grapes?" Song Wen asked as he walked up to Yue Min's side.

  Yue Min was trimming the grapevine when he heard someone asking a question. He turned his head to see it was Song Wen, and said: "You don't know, yesterday I saw a viper coiled on the grapevine, its tongue darting in and out, really scary. I was afraid it would bite the kids, so I chopped it down."

  The tail of the scallion is just the bamboo leaf, and in Fujian there is an old saying called "tail of the scallion, biting to black". The meaning is that after being bitten by the tail of the scallion, it will immediately become poisoned and turn black. In the Fujian area, as long as you are near the mountain forest, snakes and insects can be seen everywhere, especially this tail of the scallion, which is so numerous that it's deadly. People say that within ten steps there must be fragrant grass, but in the Fujian mountainside, during the hot summer season, perhaps within three steps there will be this tail of the scallion.

  "Really? Did you see it wrong?" Song Wen said in surprise.

  Now that it's cold, most snakes and insects have burrowed into their holes. How could they possibly climb onto the grapevine? Besides, what would a snake be doing climbing up on a day as chilly as this, taking a stroll?

  "How could I possibly be wrong? I'm Fire Eye Golden Eagle, how could I possibly be wrong?"

  Yuemin said as he pulled down the cut grapevine with force.

  Just then, a "ding" sound was heard, and a scallion with a burnt tail fell from the grape leaves above, falling to the ground, seemingly still awake, and about to crawl away.

  Song Wen was startled and saw that it was a scallion, so he quickly picked up a piece of wood from his side and hit the scallion.

  Yue Min was also startled by the sudden fall of Jiao Wei Cong from above, and then picked up a hoe to fight back. In just two strokes, a small arm-long, finger-thick Jiao Wei Cong was beaten bloody and died at the hands of the two men.

  "I'm telling you! There must be scallions, my eyes are very sharp."

  Yuemin pointed at his own eyes and said, seeing his son throw the grapevine back, he called him to fetch a fire tong to pick up the dead leek and bury it.

  His family members were originally resentful of him for cutting the grapes, but now they let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he cut them off, otherwise those scallions might have caused trouble at any time.

  "What about this grapevine head that's left?"

  Song Wen threw away the wood in his hand and looked at the grape tree head that was cut off, leaving only a thick trunk of about two meters long, and asked the opposite civilian.

  "What to do? Of course, cut it down. What's the point of leaving it there? I used to hear people say that growing grapes attracts snakes, but I didn't believe it. Today, I finally understand."

  Grape vines indeed attract snakes, because grapes like to grow worm eggs and snakes like shade. The grapevine is easy to climb, so in hot weather, the snake will crawl onto the grapevine to eat worms, and after eating, it will cool down under the grape leaves. But it seems that the nature of snakes likes to climb on grapes, so sometimes grapes are also called snake grapes.

  I once heard a story, but I don't know if it's true or not.

  There was a family who planted a grapevine in their own courtyard. Whenever it was hot or during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the master of the house liked to sit under the grape arbor, drink wine, appreciate the moon and enjoy the cool breeze.

  One evening, the master of the house was drinking wine under a grape arbor and admiring the moon when he suddenly felt severe abdominal pain after drinking too much, and then passed away.

  The master of the house was strong and healthy, without any illness or disaster, and everyone was surprised that he suddenly died, and for a while, they couldn't figure out what happened.

  Later, after chemical verification, it was confirmed that the male host had been poisoned by a snake, but there were no signs of a snake bite on his body, which left people baffled.

  In order to find out the truth about the male host's death, the family and the male host's friends decided to restore the scene according to the situation before the male host's death.

  So everyone sat under the grape arbor, in the same way as the male host had before he died, stir-fried some small dishes, poured some wine and started drinking.

  The fragrance of wine wafts through the air, drifting through the vineyard.

  The bright moon is in the sky, what a wonderful life it is.

  Suddenly, a drop fell from the grape trellis above and landed in the wine cup. The crowd looked up to see that on the grapevine was coiled a poisonous snake with red eyes, green body, and white belly, looking sinister and venomous. It seemed to be attracted by the wine aroma and drooled saliva. Only then did everyone realize that the host had drunk poisoned wine mixed with the snake's venom when he was drinking, which led to his death.

  Song Wen heard that Yue Min was going to cut down the grapevine and felt it was a pity.

  Yuemin also sighed and said: "It's true, it's been fifteen years since we planted them."

  Humans are not like plants and trees, who can be without emotions? No matter what things, after being together for a long time, one's heart cannot help but have some attachment.

  "Your grapes are also very delicious and have grown so big, since you don't want them, I'll take them back to plant, it would be a waste to throw them away."

  Actually, the grapes that grew on Yue Min's grape tree were very sweet. In the past, Song Wen and Song Hu often snuck over to his house when no one was home and climbed over the wall to steal some.

  "You'd better think carefully, this thing can attract snakes." Yuedi said.

  "I'm not afraid of anything, what are you afraid of?"

  "Since you want it, I'll give it to you. Luckily you came a step earlier, or else I would have thrown it in the trash can."

  When Song Wenyao saw it, Yuemin even helped him dig up the grape tree.

  The grapevine had been planted for so many years, and it was as thick as a small leg. After digging it up, Song Wen directly carried it on his shoulder, waved goodbye to Yue Min, and left.

  As he came out, he was about to head up the mountain. Before he had taken a few steps, he saw Song Hu driving a small truck rushing over and honking the horn wildly as he approached him.

  Song Wen also didn't know what he wanted to do, so he stopped.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Take you home, didn't you say you hadn't taken a car?"

  "So kind?"

  Song Wenzai didn't believe this guy was so righteous.

  "I'm asking if you're leaving or not." Song Hu said, becoming impatient as he saw his kindness being taken for granted.

  Song Wen looked at him suspiciously, but in the end still put the grapevine on his car and sat up.