Chapter 28
"Chirp~~~"
"Chirp~~~"
The calls of birds came intermittently.
Qin Luoxia went deep into the mountain forest again.
She knew this place was dangerous.
Even though she had just promised her husband she would not come here to take risks again.
But after her husband left today, she still came.
She was illiterate and could not describe her emotions.
Anger, resentment, hatred, pain.
Last night was really long.
She stayed by Feng's side, and somehow she was thinking about whether there was enough money at home to buy a coffin.
To buy a coffin was her insistence.
Because since she was little, her Mom kept nagging her: when your Dad died, his corpse was not even fully recovered, fragmented all over the wilderness, dead without a whole corpse. Your Dad could not reincarnate and could only become a lone ghost.
Later when her Mom was critically ill about to die, she only closed her eyes after seeing Qin Luoxia had bought the coffin.
She spent all the money she had saved up for her wedding, and even borrowed a lot of debts, just to buy that coffin.
Her Mom was satisfied and closed her eyes.
Qin Luoxia became an old maid who could not get married.
The coffin was very important.
Qin Luoxia held a spear, shuttling through the dense forest.
Her pace became faster and faster, and her tall figure became more and more agile.
If there were rocks blocking the way, she jumped over them. If there were wide gullies, she leapt over them. If there were cliffs, she climbed over them. She moved like a flexible big ape, and was extremely skilled in the dense mountain forest.
But the uncomfortable feeling in her heart still could not be vented out.
She saw her Husband spit blood.
She was scared.
Her Mom also spit blood before she died.
At that time, she went to get the doctor for her Mom. The doctor said to take the gallbladder of a fierce python to swallow as medicine, as that could supplement the blood from the heart and mouth.
At that time, she was just a little girl, at most a stronger little girl than the other girls in the village. She was even afraid of ordinary snakes, let alone finding a fierce giant python.
When her Mom brought her to this village to settle down, her Mom told others they escaped here from the north.
Also because she was exceptionally tall, and was often bullied when she was little. There were always people talking behind their backs, saying her Mom was humiliated by foreigners, so she gave birth to Qin Luoxia. They said Qin Luoxia was a mixed race child.
Deep down in her heart, Qin Luoxia also thought so.
Because she was much taller than the other little girls.
But in the period before her Mom died, her Mom kept muttering that her Dad was a hero of the world, single-handedly charged through thousands of soldiers and horses, and was an invincible general.
She thought her Mom became silly due to illness.
She never dared to believe this claim.
Sometimes when she thought back, she treated it as a dream, as her Mom’s beautiful fantasy before death.
Her Mom actually looked pretty good herself. Qin Luoxia was quite ordinary. She probably looked like her Dad.
She felt the luckiest thing in her life was to marry her Husband.
Her Husband was like an immortal figure in her eyes. He treated her extremely well. When she did something wrong, her Husband would patiently teach her, unlike other men in the village who often beat and scolded their wives.
Her Husband also did not dislike her tall stature. She felt that her Husband truly liked her when he hugged her.
Her Husband said he felt at ease hugging her.
Last night when her Husband hugged her, many scenes flashed through her mind.
Because she dared not think of Feng, she dared not think of anything related to Feng.
She tried hard to fill her mind with other things.
So she forced herself to think about the scene of herself hunting wild boars in the forest during the day.
Then the appearance of the entire forest really emerged in her mind. The places she had been to, even though she just passed by them before, when she recalled again, she surprisingly remembered them bit by bit - which tree was where, which rock was where, which gorge was where, and even where which bird or beast would be. It seemed she was recalling them one by one.
In that moment, she thought that she believed what her Mom said before death. Her Dad was indeed an invincible general, a commander-in-chief, a great general. How else could such detailed memories of the whole forest emerge in her mind?
At that moment, the entire forest in her mind was like a battlefield that she was going to conquer.
Until she thought of how Feng had also been to the forest, everything abruptly stopped and disappeared along with the crying sounds.
As if everything just now was merely an illusion of extreme sadness.
Just like before her Mom died, fantasizing her Dad to be a hero of the world.
But now she still came.
She did not care whether her Mom was epileptic or if she herself had hallucinations. She had to come.
She couldn't be without her Husband. She was going to hunt a python.
She entered the forest and then happily discovered that it was not an illusion after all.
She had only been here once, yet her mind remembered it all clearly. She even knew where there would be rocks and cliffs in advance. She ran extremely fast, as if running on flat ground.
In the forest, she moved towards the previous mountain stream. The experience from the images in her mind told her that under the mountain stream was the most likely place to find a giant python.
The image of an inconspicuous bush she saw in the stream before floated up in her mind.
At that time she seemed to have only taken a glance at it while carving wild boar meat.
But when recalling again now, she actually remembered it clearly.
Many years ago, the old doctor had said that near the habitat of a fierce giant python, there would be a kind of plant that grew leaves shaped like tongues. She actually remembered it.
The image and words matched up.
She determined there must be a giant python under this mountain stream.
Then she ran over in one breath.
The mountain stream was originally halfway up a hill. The water above it flowed down into a waterfall, while the area below was like a cliff bottom. Even at noon, it radiated chilliness and was extremely secluded.
Qin Luoxia was certain that the giant python must be below, because pythons were afraid of heat and would look for shady places.
It seemed her Husband had said that too.
Her Husband was very knowledgeable and knew everything.
Moreover, that tongue-shaped plant was below too. The stems were thick, and she imagined seeing a giant python coiling around that plant, moving about.
The damp marks on those black rocks seemed to be traces left behind by a giant python crawling out day after day.
Qin Luoxia sat by the mountain stream.
Last time, she had sat here to divide wild boar meat.
That was just yesterday.
She was delighted at her luck, happy that her family could eat meat, and also a little worried about being scolded by her Husband.
In short, she was full of drive back then.
But now, it seemed something was different.
After experiencing her son almost dying and her Husband spitting blood last night, Qin Luoxia sat by the mountain stream, blowing in the mountain breeze, occasionally having water droplets splash onto her.
In the distance was the dense forest, below was the deep cliff.
She did not know how to compose poems, nor dared she shout at the distance. She just scraped the cliff with her spear, again and again. Again and again, the hard cliff quickly showed deep marks.
She did not know what she was thinking about.
In fact, her mind had always been simple – eat fully, dress warmly, let her whole family eat fully and dress warmly.
When the seventh mark appeared on the cliff, Qin Luoxia moved.
At this moment, she was like a soaring eagle spreading its wings.
She seemed to jump straight down, but in fact there was skill in her movement. One foot tapped the cliff, her body flew out, then she grabbed the vine in the middle, and using the vine’s momentum, leapt to the front.
The giant figure disappeared after a few moves, as if merging into the depths of the cliff bottom.
"Chirp~~~"
"Chirp~~~"
Occasionally some bird calls passed by.
"Drip~~"
"Drip~~"
The sound of water hitting rocks.
"Thud~~"
"Thud~~"
The echo from water dripping into the deep pool.
"Rustle~~"
The sound of leaves shaking and swaying in the wind.
Natural sounds.
Tranquil and peaceful.
It is said that listening to such sounds makes it easy to fall asleep, and can treat insomnia.
But these sounds
Covered up the sounds of strife in the forest.
Covered up the essence of the law of the jungle.
The sounds of the weak being killed, their blood flowing out, would also be murmuring. Hitting the rocks it would also drip drip, falling into the deep pool also ding dong ding dong.
The sound of dying breath was also subtle, chirp chirp chirp, faint and small.
Knives cutting meat, if done quickly enough, would also give a rustling sound.
Encountering bones and hard scales, there would be crisp collision sounds.
When the sun slanted slightly,
Qin Luoxia dragged up a giant python from under the mountain stream, drenched in blood.
Like returning from hell.
But the confident smile on her face was more like a triumphant warrior coming home.
With her ordinary looks, she shone brightly in this moment.
A familiar place.
Using the flowing water to wash away the blood, she began dismembering the giant python.
She also had many wounds on her body, but they could not conceal her happiness and delight.
She did it.
She could.
Previously, she looked down on herself for being tall, strong and sturdy, feeling different from others and embarrassed. She would always try to make herself the same as everyone else, even unconsciously lowering her head and hunching her shoulders in crowds.
But today, with the clear plan of hunting down the giant python in her mind, and having succeeded in carrying it out, she suddenly felt extremely confident.
She was no mongrel. Her mother had no madness. Her real father was an unparalleled brave warrior. She had inherited the fearless valor of her father.
Marrying her husband would not disgrace him.
Previously, she was just a little stronger than others. But after last night, perhaps like her husband said - people who experience the thrills between life and death can stimulate their potential to the maximum.
That was how she felt now. Not only had she become extremely strong, her mind worked differently too. It was as if she could vividly recall things she had seen before as long as she thought carefully about them.
Qin Luoxia swiftly dismembered the giant python.
She carefully extracted the snake’s gallbladder and stored it separately.
Then she stood right under the waterfall to wash the bloodstains off her body.
It was very hot. By the time she got home, she would probably be dry.
After wringing the water out of her hair by the pond, the reflection in the deep pond showed a long-haired woman.
She pondered and decided to keep the secret of her identity.
Her husband was an ordinary scholar after all. She was already too sturdy for a woman. The older women in the village said, “When the wife overpowers the husband, the marriage is doomed.”
And her husband’s mother was pretentious most of all.
But Qin Luoxia felt that her husband truly loved his mother deep down, which was why he treated all children extremely well, never laying a hand on them or even speaking harshly.
What her husband liked were gentle, dignified women.
She could not be rash and expose her true nature, or it would frighten her husband.
After treating all the bloodstains and wounds on her body, Qin Luoxia also sorted out her thoughts logically.
She then wrapped up the sliced python meat with large leaves and skillfully placed them into the bamboo basket. She piled foraged vegetables over them.
As she sprinted home, she thought to herself that if her husband consumed the deadly viper’s gallbladder, his health would strengthen, and they might even be able to have another baby. Her son Feng was too lonely being the only child, with no one to help him in fights.
A powerful figure dashed through the forest.
A grizzly bear shrank back into its cave.
“Chirp!”
“Chirp!”
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