The Snake Spirit Story: The Four-Foot Mother Snake He Accidentally Cut in Half Came Crawling Up the Ladder for Revenge in the Dead of Night, Covered in Blood

Everyone knows snakes are very vindictive. Today I will tell you a story about a snake that happened in our village. This story was told by Wang the Lame in our village. Back then he was not yet lame, and everyone called him Wang Danu.

It happened in the busy June farming season. After the rice harvest, everyone began busily levelling the paddy fields to prepare for the next season's sowing.

That day was strange too. Wang Danu had drunk himself silly the night before and slept until the sun was high in the sky, until his dim-sighted old mother knocked on the door with her cane and got him out of bed. He gulped down a few mouthfuls of thin porridge, grabbed his iron shovel and hurried out the door.

When he reached the edge of the field and saw the weeds taller than a man, you could tell just how lazy he was. Wang Danu was lazy, but he still had strength. In order to fill his belly next season, he still buried his head and started clearing.

Wang Danu swung his iron shovel into the pile of weeds, sweat pouring down his body like rain, and he felt stiflingly hot. Without realising it, it had already reached noon. Wang Danu looked at his field and saw that two-thirds of it was still uncleared, which made him even more agitated. As if in frustration, he raised the shovel and hacked wildly at the grass.

As the saying goes, when the sun is overhead, do not lose your mind. Suddenly, he felt the spot where his shovel landed give out a sharp "hiss", and then he saw something in the grass darting away swiftly.

Wang Danu suspiciously pushed aside the spot where the shovel head had struck, and saw what was in front of him. His scalp felt as if it had been violently yanked. Before his eyes was a two-foot-long snake body rolling on the grass, blood splattering everywhere, twisting like a fried dough twist. Wang Danu could even hear its bones creaking as it struggled.

At the thought of this, he raised the shovel in his hand and smacked the dying snake a few more times. The snake finally stopped moving. Wang Danu picked it up, looked closely, and could not help but start cursing. Damn, it was only half a snake! And it was the lower half.

Suddenly, he thought of something. So what had run away just now was the upper half of the snake. He felt something was off, but then thought, with it cut like that, it probably could not survive anyway, right.

Wang Danu carried this half snake home with dry grass. All the way he kept feeling as if someone was following behind him, but when he turned around he found nothing. Wang Danu laughed at himself for being paranoid. When he reached the village entrance, a few villagers saw his half snake and could not help but be curious. Wang Danu told them the other half had run away. The villagers all cried out, "Wang Danu, disaster is about to fall on you!" "This is a sin!"

Although Wang Danu felt something was a bit off, he also thought, what era is this, still being superstitious.

When he got home, Wang Danu's old mother saw him carrying something in his hand and asked what it was.

Wang Danu said it was a rice field eel, and his old mother believed him.

At lunch, his old mother tasted a bite and said it tasted good. Wang Danu said of course it was good.

Why is there egg yolk too, his old mother asked. This is not a rice field eel.

Of course it is not, this is a fattened female flower snake, what a pity there is only half.

Hearing this, the bowl in his old mother's hand fell with a clatter and shattered.

"You beast, hurry up and throw it far away!" She ground her teeth and raised her cane. "Disaster is upon us, what sin have you committed."

He could ignore other people's words, but he could not ignore his old mother's. Of course he did not think it was anything, it was just a dead snake. He could not be bothered to throw it far, so he casually dumped it into the drain behind the house, and before that he regretfully drank a few more mouthfuls of the soup.

Turning back, he saw his mother still reciting a few sutras asking forgiveness for sins, and she asked Wang Danu about how he had hit the snake. Wang Danu did not treat it as a big deal and told his mother.

The more his old mother listened, the paler her face became, and in the end she said with deep earnestness.

"If you offend a snake, as long as it still has a breath, it will definitely come for revenge. These two days you had better not stay in the village."

Wang Danu would not agree. What nonsense was this, leaving home to take refuge because of a broken snake? Was it worth it?

In the end, helpless, his old mother had to compromise and made Wang Danu sleep only in the attic at night. Wang Danu could not argue her down and had to agree.

When it was time to sleep at night, Wang Danu reluctantly still went up to the attic to sleep.

Once Wang Danu's snoring could be heard, his old mother still felt uneasy and removed the wooden ladder leading up to the attic. She always had a premonition that this snake would definitely come tonight.

Who would have thought that in the middle of the night Wang Danu got up to pee, and could only come down along the wooden door. When he came back, he speechlessly found the ladder and put it back in place.

After all this tossing about, Wang Danu had some difficulty falling asleep again.

Before long, half asleep and half awake, he heard a rustling sound. At first he thought it was an auditory hallucination, but soon the sound became more and more real. He thought it might be a mouse, and at the thought he reached out to feel for the shoe under the bed and threw it over.

The rustling sound finally stopped for a moment. After about a few minutes, the sound rose again.

Wang Danu threw the other shoe over too.

This time the rustling sound stopped again.

Wang Danu finally slept peacefully. Before long, that rustling sound slowly rose again.

At dawn, Wang Danu got up groggily, walked barefoot to the ladder, and slowly held it to climb down. After only two or three steps, he found his hand touching something wet and greasy. He opened his eyes and looked, and Wang Danu instantly wet himself in fright.

Right beside his hand was half a snake body covered in blood.

Wang Danu was paralysed with fear and fell off the ladder.

Only later did they learn that the snake had already died by the time it climbed up the ladder. Wang Danu said it was probably because it had been hit by the shoes twice and no longer had much strength to climb up.

Wang Danu said that for the rest of his life he would not dare sleep downstairs. Every day he slept in the attic, and he still had to pull the ladder up.

Wang Danu's leg was broken in that fall.