1: What a sin

Gu Ling Mountain stretches for eight hundred miles, rarely visited by people, and is overrun with birds of prey.

At the foot of Gu Ling Mountain sits a family home, nestled by the mountain and river, quiet and peaceful.

"Qingyang, stop sleeping. Look at the time. Hurry up to the mountain and see how the snake traps are doing. The snake collection team is coming tomorrow."

Smoke from the kitchen chimney curled upwards. A woman in her early twenties, dressed in simple clothes, was stoking the fire and cooking.

"Creak~"

The door opened. Qingyang took a deep breath of the slightly damp mountain air, turned around, walked to his wife's side, and gently hugged her from behind.

"Yingying, you are so good."

"Alright, alright, be good. Go wash your face and brush your teeth. Your food is packed and on the table. Things have been a bit restless lately."

The news keeps reporting animal attacks. Be careful on the road. I don't know what's going on these days."

While his wife was nagging, Qingyang also finished washing up, took his food, picked up the snake traps, and prepared to leave.

"Wife, I'm going. Give me a kiss."

"Mwah~"

Walking into the mountain in a good mood, Qingyang also began to think.

Three months into their marriage, although they were far from the city's hustle and bustle, his wife didn't mind. However, many things were inconvenient, so Qingyang was considering buying a house.

Having lived at the foot of Gu Ling Mountain since childhood, Qingyang was very familiar with the area.

Along the way, he occasionally picked some sour jujubes and wild fruits. As noon approached, Qingyang finally arrived at the snake trap.

"Oh, not bad luck."

He saw a roughly two-meter-long rat snake curled up in the trap, which made Qingyang happy.

Rat snakes are non-venomous and have delicious meat. This one alone could sell for seven or eight hundred yuan, definitely a big harvest.

After resetting the trap, Qingyang quickly went to the second trap.

However, when Qingyang opened the lid of the second trap, a bone-chilling coldness shot straight to his head, startling him.

In the trap, a young python, only about a meter long, as black as ink all over, with a faint golden mark on its forehead, was staring at Qingyang with cold, vertical pupils.

"What is this thing? It's really strange."

While muttering, Qingyang's hands didn't stop moving. He grabbed the young python by the neck, released its restraints, and directly threw it into the snake cage on his back.

Setting off again, for some reason, although he had been catching snakes for many years, Qingyang always felt a lingering fear towards the Black Python behind him.

He continued forward. When he reached the third trap, Qingyang's face instantly darkened.

"Damn wild boars, I have to reset it again."

While Qingyang was busy resetting the trap, he was completely unaware that, due to his large movements, the lid of the bamboo cage carrying the snakes on his back had quietly opened.

Inside the bamboo cage, the stout rat snake was now curled up in the corner, trembling in front of the young python.

In contrast, this Black Python's vertical pupils showed human-like intelligence. It slightly raised its head, observing every move around it.

At one point, as Qingyang's movements became too large, the bamboo cage lid instantly opened, and the young python suddenly shot out of the bamboo cage.

"Hiss hiss~"

Its forked tongue flicked out slightly. The next second, Qingyang felt a pain in his neck and suddenly came to his senses.

Grabbing the Black Python that was biting his neck, Qingyang touched his neck with his other hand, which was already bleeding.

"How did the lid open? Thankfully, pythons are generally non-venomous. Never mind, let's hurry back. Even if it's not venomous, bacterial infection is not a small matter."

Just as Qingyang was about to stuff the Black Python in his hand back into the bamboo cage, he was surprised to find that this Black Python was actually dead.

"Sigh, half the price is gone. I'm really defeated by you."

While complaining, he walked down the mountain. Gradually, Qingyang felt his steps become unsteady, and his mind became increasingly blurred.

Just as he was about to fall, in his daze, Qingyang actually saw the Black Python that had fallen out of the bamboo cage. Its eyelids began to twitch slightly, as if it was about to come back to life.

...

...

When he woke up again, Qingyang was awakened by the noisy crying and the sound of suona horns.

"Where am I?"

In a slightly cramped space, he could vaguely see the outline of his home through the gaps.

In the courtyard, many familiar faces came and went, each with a forced smile.

Feeling that something was wrong, Qingyang suddenly lowered his head to look.

With this one look, Qingyang's entire body twisted frantically.

The dense scales as black as ink, wasn't this the young python he had caught earlier?

"I... I actually turned into a snake?"

In the courtyard, his wife, Shen Ying, was wearing mourning clothes, looking as if all her spirit had been drained, slumped beside a coffin, keeping vigil.

Qingyang wanted to shout, but the sound he made was only the "hissing" of a snake's tongue.

"No, I must find a way to get out. I want to tell Yingying that I'm not dead."

"But in my current state..."

The custom in Gu Ling Mountain village was to keep the body for three days before burial.

At noon the next day, as the suona horns played high, the procession at the door gradually moved away.

Noticing that everyone had gone to the funeral, Qingyang looked at the lid of the cage, which was barely secured with wire, and immediately began to try.

"Snap~"

To Qingyang's surprise, with just one bite, the wire was instantly broken by him.

Then, unnoticed by anyone, Qingyang instantly escaped the cage, quickly burrowed into the vegetable garden, and lay in wait.

In the evening, the villagers had left, and the entire courtyard looked deserted and lonely.

At the entrance, Shen Ying sat blankly on the steps, tears constantly flowing from her eyes, lost in thought.

"Shen Ying, don't be sad. People have to look forward, right? How about this, I'll stay with you for the next couple of days, and then you can come to the city with me."

Zhang Yunxi, Shen Ying's best friend, was currently studying for her postgraduate exams.

Hearing her good friend's comfort, Shen Ying forced a smile and said, "It's okay, you go ahead with your studies. I might need some time."

Qingyang lost his parents when he was young. His biggest wish was for this home to be full of life and warmth. I..."

Before she could finish speaking, a hint of displeasure appeared on Zhang Yunxi's face.

"Oh, you, you're so focused on romance, I'm really defeated. Out of our four roommates, we were the closest. Although Brother Wang is married, he was really good to you. I don't know what you were thinking, finding such a poor guy."

The two seemed to disagree. In the end, Zhang Yunxi did not stay with Shen Ying. She picked up her expensive small bag and turned to leave.

In the large house, only Shen Ying remained, sitting on the steps, looking at the continuous mountain range in the distance and the setting sun.

"You said we would accompany each other for a lifetime, but you stopped yesterday."

As the murmuring sound echoed for a moment, the tears that Shen Ying had managed to control, like a burst dam, flowed uncontrollably again.