Chapter Five: Little Jin's Hunt

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King Serpent (Brothers and sisters, if you have votes, please give them to Little Fish.)
Sha Lery slept for a few hours in the conductor's compartment, and when the train arrived in Guangzhou, the conductor opened the door and woke him up.
“Young man, we’ve arrived. Time to get off.”
“Thank you, big sister.” Sha Lery put on the sincere, naive air of a country boy as he thanked the conductor who had given him a place to sleep. “Thank you, thank you.”
“Young man, do you really have a snake with you?”
“No, absolutely not.” Sha Lery looked as honest as ever, adamantly denying it.
“You’re not being honest, are you? Get off now. I’m not the police; as long as the train’s safe, I won’t bother you.”
Sha Lery grinned with that same honest, simple smile. The conductor, who had seen countless people and could read the flaws in human nature with a sharp eye, was left confused. Maybe he really was wronged and had no snake on him? But none of that mattered anymore—she had reached her station and had no reason to care further.
Sha Lery got off the train before Gang Mengzi. Gang Mengzi squeezed down from the train, carrying both their luggage, sweat streaming down his face. Tao Gaolong also got off, his face cold, not saying a word, heading straight for the exit. The other two just gave a brief nod in greeting and left as well, only Tao Liang came down and affectionately patted Sha Lery on the shoulder.
“Lery, you’re gutsy—lying to the police without batting an eyelid, never telling the truth. I have to hand it to you. Let’s meet up again sometime.”
“Where’s the guts in that?” Sha Lery said modestly, grinning. “But, I did get to be the conductor for a bit and slept in a free sleeper berth. That’s thanks to Tao Gaolong and his nonsense.”
“Look at you, so pleased with yourself... Goodbye.” Tao Liang also disliked Tao Gaolong, but since they shared the same surname, he didn’t want to offend him or comment on him.
“Uh... Liang, could you take us to find Brother Qiang? We don’t know the way.”
“Uh... well... we’re not exactly on the same route... but... all right, I’ll take you.”
Tao Liang led the two of them out of Guangzhou station, and before their eyes stretched a sea of skyscrapers.
“My god, so many buildings, so many cars, so many people... where do we even go?” Gang Mengzi marveled, but his eyes were soon drawn to beautiful women. Sha Lery was stunned too, standing motionless as he stared. He thought, if you fall into a city like this, wouldn’t you get lost and die? Only when Tao Liang called out did they remember they needed to catch a bus to Zhongcun in Panyu. Brother Qiang’s construction site was there.
Half a day later, they arrived at Zhongcun. Today, Zhongcun is the site of Guangzhou’s new railway station, bustling with activity, but back then, it was nothing special. From Dashi to Zhongcun was still forested hills, and Zhongcun itself was just a small, shabby town. On the outskirts, there seemed to be some tall buildings, but inside it was mostly low, old houses, and the shops along the streets were tucked into these low buildings. The foreman, Brother Qiang, had his construction site by the roadside and rented an old house in the street for himself.
The three of them were passing through a narrow alley when Little Gold, wrapped around Sha Lery’s arm, suddenly stirred. With a swift slither, it shot out from his sleeve and, as if flying, darted up to the second floor of a small Western-style building.
Startled, Sha Lery looked up and saw an old man on the balcony, feeding and playing with a thrush.
The old man let out a cry of alarm. The shout startled both Tao Liang and Gang Mengzi, who were walking ahead—they both looked up. Little Gold had already reached the birdcage and was threatening the old man.
The little snake coiled its tail around the cage, hissing with its red tongue at the old man, who was so frightened he fell back onto the ground. Seeing the old man had fallen, Little Gold darted into the bamboo cage—its body was so small it easily squeezed through the bars. The thrush let out a mournful cry before Little Gold bit its head and began to swallow. The bird was much larger than the snake itself; Sha Lery had seen snakes eat before, and swallowing large prey was always a slow, difficult process. The thrush wasn’t huge, but compared to Little Gold’s mouth, it was enormous. Could it really eat it?
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What a bold little snake, a tiny bandit, daring to snatch food right from a man’s hand. What trouble it’s caused now.
Sha Lery’s heart pounded, but he dared not say a word. People in the apartment, hearing the old man’s cry, rushed out—a middle-aged man quickly opened the door and came out.
“Dad, what’s wrong?”
The old man, tongue-tied with fear, could only point at the cage. The middle-aged man, seeing the snake, screamed and nearly fell himself. Spotting the snake devouring the thrush, he hurriedly helped the old man up and retreated into the apartment.
“Kill the snake—someone help, kill the snake!”
Only after closing the door did he dare to shout. Several people crowded by the window, watching the snake eat the bird, but none dared open the door. No one had ever seen a snake hunt so brazenly in plain sight.
Down below, a crowd had gathered, pointing and talking. Sha Lery and Gang Mengzi blended in, pretending to be just curious onlookers.
“This snake is too bold. What if it gets into the house?”
An old man worried aloud.
“Yeah, but what a beautiful little snake,” said a pretty girl.
“This kind of snake is rare. Look, it’s got a little golden crown on its head, like a tiny king... What kind of snake is it?” said a sturdy young man.
Sha Lery paid no attention to the crowd’s chatter, only watching Little Gold in worry. How could this damn snake do such a thing—openly hunting a thrush for food? What if someone caught or killed it? Gang Mengzi gaped, amazed by the snake’s ferocity, while Tao Liang grinned along with the others.
The little snake ate quickly. Its jawbones were unusually strong—one bite, and the thrush’s bones snapped, soon crushed to a pulp by the snake’s jaws, becoming thinner and longer before being swallowed down, a bulge forming in its belly.
After four or five minutes, the snake tried to leave the cage, but with the bird inside, the bulge in its belly couldn’t pass through the bars—it was stuck. Sha Lery panicked. What now? If those people seized the opportunity to kill it... Sure enough, as he feared—
“It’s stuck! Kill it!”
Inside, someone thought the moment had come. A young man in his twenties, holding a stick over a meter long, opened the door and came out. Little Gold sensed danger and hissed fiercely at him. The young man immediately retreated inside. Then the snake turned and bit the bars, and with a snap, broke them.
A cry of shock swept through the crowd. A snake that could bite through a bamboo cage? How terrifying! Was there really such a monstrous snake in the world?
Sha Lery was startled too, worried that Little Gold might break its own teeth. But he was relieved—at least it escaped; if it had stayed stuck, what then?
Having bitten through the bars, the snake squeezed through and slid down the wall to the ground.
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“Run, the snake’s coming down!”
Someone shouted, and the crowd scattered in panic. Sha Lery and Gang Mengzi moved with them for a few steps, and Little Gold quickly caught up, slipping into the bamboo tube hanging at Sha Lery’s waist.
There it would quietly digest its meal.
“My god, Lery, what kind of snake is your Little Gold? It’s so fierce!” Tao Liang finally saw the snake’s ferocity. “If it ever bit someone, it’d be chaos.”
“It doesn’t bite people,” Sha Lery said firmly.
“You never know. If it goes mad one day, it could kill someone.”
Tao Liang shivered a little.
“I’ve raised it for eight years—it’s never bitten a chicken, let alone a person.” Actually, the snake had killed a chicken before, but sometimes the truth couldn’t be told.
“Then why did it go after someone else’s bird today?”
“It doesn’t eat anything else, only little birds,” Sha Lery said helplessly.
“Aren’t snakes supposed to eat mice and frogs? Is yours different? Did you catch birds for it every day at home?”
“I didn’t need to. It would climb trees and catch birds itself.”
“Heavens, you didn’t raise a snake, you raised a demon!” Tao Liang shook his head. “You’d better keep a close eye on it. That snake is nothing but trouble. Tomorrow it might go after someone else’s caged bird.”
It really was a headache. In the countryside, no one kept pet birds, so there was never a problem. But in the city, there were plenty of old men who did. If it hunted these caged birds every day, things would get out of hand. The police might even start hunting this bird-eating snake.
“Don’t tell anyone about this, or if that family comes for compensation, I’ll be doomed.”
“You need to say that?” Tao Liang glared at him. “Could you afford it? Those old men’s birds are precious, worth thousands, even tens of thousands. Still, serves them right—city folk love to bully us country folks. Your snake got revenge for us!”
Tao Liang was loyal, but he also held a grudge against city people.
“It’s just a thrush, how expensive could it be?”
As they chatted, they soon arrived at Brother Qiang’s door. Tao Liang took his leave, and Sha Lery promised to treat him to a meal once he got settled. Then, with Gang Mengzi, he stood at the door, and Gang Mengzi called out in his booming voice.
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