Kaifeng Monster

Chapter 12 Snake Soup (1)
"The Story of the Snake Catcher", recorded by Liu Zongyuan, was collected in "Liuhe East Collection", and was passed down orally from generation to generation by the villagers.

He lived in Yongzhou for generations, and he made a living by catching snakes.He is illiterate, but he can memorize the first few sentences of "The Snake Catcher's Tale" by stumbles.

"There are different snakes in the wild in Yongzhou, with black matter and white scales; they will die if they touch grass and trees; if they bite people, they will not be able to resist them. However, if you get wax as bait, it can cure strong winds, spasms, and fistulas, and remove dead muscles. , kill the three insects."

Regarding this snake, Liuhe Dong's article conveyed two messages to the outside world.

Extremely poisonous, it can be a good medicine.

From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, there were still many villagers in Yongzhou who caught snakes for a living.

Carefully avoiding the snake's fangs, they followed Liu Zongyuan's memorabilia, "take it as bait", and then handed over the finished product as a tax, or went to the market to buy and sell it, in exchange for a meager amount of money. The days are still poor and the suffering is endless.

He was alone, using his ancestral business to catch snakes, from being alone to embracing a beautiful wife, and then building a house and buying land. There was no shortage of wine and meat at the banquet, no shortage of silk and silk tailoring, and no shortage of carriages and horses when going in and out.

From a precarious little snake catcher to a big family in Yongzhou.

Is there a recipe for getting rich?Without him, the brain is active.

For example, right now, he squints his eyes to look at the snake in the bamboo basket.

Ah no, what he is looking at is not the snake, but the squandering money that is about to flow into his pocket.

He laughed, lifted the bamboo cover, aimed at the snake's seven inches, pinched it with two fingers, and pulled it out of the cage.

The snake seemed to know that the end was approaching, its body and tail twisted, and its core vomited out.

Calm and composed, he grabbed the scissors from the side table, and the blades of the scissors were sharpened.Place the snake's neck between the scissors and cut off the head.Falling at the same time, there is also the poisonous fang that can be fatal if swallowed lightly.

The head of the snake, which is slightly triangular in shape, rolled far away, and died with unsatisfactory eyes.

The snake that lost its head was still conscious, and its body twitched violently.Unhurriedly, he stretched out his hand to grab the tail of the snake, put it under his feet to step on it, and grabbed the broken neck with the other end and pulled it up, pulling the snake's body straight like a string, and then cut a small slit in the broken neck with scissors. Insert the tip from the small slit, and go down to the end.

The warm snake blood splashed on his cheeks, but he thought: What a snake skin!
This snake skin is black and translucent, and looks like a white patch. It is the best skin for the handle of a sword.

The snake twisted and twisted endlessly, he carefully put down the scissors, peeled off the skin at the neck of the snake and grabbed it, moved his left and right hands, and there was a soft chirping sound, the skin and flesh were peeled off.The right hand is holding the whole snake skin, and the left hand is holding the slightly powdered fresh body of the snake, which is crystal clear and bright, and it took a long time for blood to ooze like sweat.

He solemnly put the snake skin into the lacquer plate, stretched out his hand to the snake's neck and grabbed the joints, pulled up with his right hand, pulled down with his left hand, another strong force separated the flesh and bones.

Snake bones, like tiger bones, are also rare medicinal materials.

It's not over yet.

Not forgetting the snake gall, he reached into the hot belly of the snake, groped, groped, and pinched off the full snake gall.

The little snake gall, oval in shape, is dark green in color, in his eyes, it is a more moist and precious color than emerald.

This is the end?

No, no, no, not yet.

He cooks well.

Start with a pot of boiling water, and scald the body of the snake until it is almost cooked but not yet cooked. Don’t scald it until it gets old. Old people are abominable, and when the snake meat is old, it will lose its smoothness.Then take a casserole of thin black-bone chicken soup, which should be thin and not thick. This is snake soup, and the black-bone chicken should not overwhelm the host.

When the chicken soup boils, put the neat snake body in, and add whole green onions.Scallion white is one flavor, green onion leaves are also one flavor, ginger slices, tangerine peel, longan, rice wine, boiled carefully over low heat.It only lasted half an hour, and when the time came, the snake body was picked up and torn into filaments.Tear it by hand instead of cutting it with a knife. Cold iron will spoil the taste of snake soup.

Then put on the frying pan, heat the pan, melt a little fat, add shredded snake, shredded duck, shredded chicken, shredded winter bamboo shoots, shredded mushrooms, shredded ham, pour a spoonful of rice wine, add plum salt, 醋醢, sugarcane syrup , pepper powder, after boiling, use water chestnut powder to thicken it into a thin sauce, push it evenly out of the pot, fill each bowl until it is [-]% full, pour a spoonful of black-bone chicken soup, sprinkle with lemon leaves, coriander powder, white chrysanthemum and osmanthus. Then pour a spoonful of black chicken soup.

That's the end, it's perfect.

Keep the first bowl for yourself, and the rest are served on the table, and all the diners scramble to fight for it. There are too many monks and too little porridge, what can I do?
That's easy, the one with the highest price gets it.

How much money are you willing to pay for such a bowl of snake soup?
Relying on the snake skin, snake bone, snake gall, and snake soup, he can make money sitting on the ground, and he has no worries about food and clothing.

There are some people who have a family and wealth and then just take over the mountain with nothing. No, he is rich and still alone every day, going into the mountain to catch snakes.

The luck was very good that day, usually only two or three were caught, but as many as six were caught that day.Satisfied, I went down the mountain, and on the half-mountain road, I met an old man.

The old man leaned against the rocks and stared at him coldly from a distance, his heart was trembling, and he walked past the old man quickly.

The old man said calmly behind his back: "If you kill the snake spirit like this, aren't you afraid of harming your descendants?"

He was startled, when he looked back, the mountains and rocks were gone, how could there be any old man?
Trembling down the mountain, trembling all the way, still far away from home, I saw the little boy at home happily looking for him all the way.

"Good luck, sir," the servant smiled flatteringly, "Madam is happy."

Are you happy?
He just remembered that his wife has been complaining about being unwell these days, and mentioned that he should take a look at the doctor.

But it turned out to be happy.

He smiled foolishly, and finally asked the boy to help him throw the bamboo basket full of snakes into the mountain.

Things like accumulating Yin virtue still have to be done.

A few months passed by, and the wife gave birth to Lin'er.At the full moon banquet, relatives and friends all came to congratulate, and he stood at the head of the door to greet and send off, and his brows could not help but smile.

Suddenly, among the crowd who saw He Xi, there was an old man who stood on the ground, sneered at him, and opened his mouth to say a word.

Every word is like thunder.

"If you kill the snake spirit like this, aren't you afraid of harming your descendants?"

He yelled loudly and fell backwards, and the servants standing there rushed to support him.He rubbed his eyes and looked again, He Xi's crowd was festive and chaotic, how could there be any old people?
Since then, I have been suspicious of ghosts, and I can't sleep at night.

He guessed that the snake might have been eyeing his only son.

In countless nightmares, he saw the snake opening its mouth and swallowing his only son little by little.

His eyes were bloodshot, and with a whooping sound in his mouth, he chopped the snake into several pieces with a knife, but what he rescued was the corpse of a baby that had been corroded by the snake's body fluid until it was viscous and blurred.

Woke up in the middle of the night, sweating profusely, turned to look at the inside of the bed, the baby was breathing evenly, and was soundly asleep.

He secretly made up his mind, no matter what, he must protect his only roots.

This day, he went out to collect the bills, and it was late when he returned home. He gently pushed open the door, and the blood all over his body suddenly rushed to the top of his head.

He saw a snake twisting and twisting, coiling up to the foot of the bed, and it was about to poke into the curtain in the next moment.

So naive and pitiful, let him be caught!

He strode forward and pinched the snake's seven inches tightly. He wanted to wake up his wife, but when he heard her breathing slowly, he stopped the thought.

Looking at the snake in front of him, he suddenly thought that he had never tasted snake soup since his wife became pregnant.

With one thought, the glutton moved violently, there seemed to be countless small hands in the abdomen, kneading his stomach and intestines, and there seemed to be countless small mouths, groaning and closing, listening to the soft whispers, they were all "I want" and "I want".

Unable to hold back any longer, he squeezed the snake tightly and went straight to the kitchen.

The utensils used to kill snakes and make soup were all there, but they were a little dusty, but he didn't care about them, he cut them off with his hands, and the snake's head rolled to his feet, and he couldn't rest in peace.

Before he had time to carefully prepare the seasoning, he hurriedly poured several ladles of water into the iron pot on the stove, lit the fire, and folded it to the cutting board. He didn't care about peeling the skin and bone, and hurriedly grabbed the kitchen knife next to him, raised it high, and slammed it down hard. With a knife, chop the snake body into sections.I used too much force several times, and the knife sank deeply into the cutting board, and it took a lot of effort to pull it out.

The water boiled, and the snake's body was thrown into the water. Suddenly, a fishy hot air filled the stove, and he greedily inhaled the long-lost breath.

Snake Duan was bobbing up and down in the soup pot. He stood by the side, waiting and watching, until there was a scream at the door.

Turning her head to see, the madam was only wearing obscene clothes, limp and slumped by the door, stretched out a hand, and pointed at him tremblingly.

He thought it was funny, just made snake soup.

The madam's screams aroused the servants in the family, and those maids and servants came over one after another in their clothes.He was puzzled to see them making a mess at the door, the maidservants were yelling in horror, and the servants' faces were pale.The noise grew louder, attracting neighbors, then more neighbors, and finally yamen.

He looked down at the soup pot, and his body softened all of a sudden.

Those white ones are clearly children's phalanges.

He opened his mouth, raised his foot, and kicked something round.

It was the head of a child, and it rolled to the front of the lady.Madam opened her mouth, but no sound came out, and she passed out.

He was sentenced to be beheaded and executed after autumn.

When the first gust of bleak autumn wind shook the yellow leaves beside Kaifeng Road, the case was submitted to Kaifeng Mansion.

Duanmucui rested his elbows on the table and rested his chin on both hands, watching eagerly the owner of the noodle stall busy in front of the hot noodle pot.

A pot of boiling water, gnocchi, pinch some salt and sprinkle it down, scald two vegetable leaves when the pot is about to start, and then throw some chopped green onion.

Then, in front of Duanmucui, there was a large bowl of noodle soup with two green vegetable leaves floating in it.

The noodle soup just out of the pot was so hot that she couldn't drink it, Duanmucui carefully blew on the soup in the bowl, took two breaths and then swallowed her saliva.God knows, these days, every meal is Yi Ya's soup and Wu Taigong's exquisite dishes, and she feels like vomiting when she smells it.

Not all food is white rice, which can be eaten today, tomorrow, and later.

The so-called right way in the world is coarse food.

It was so easy to wait until the soup was not so hot, Duanmucui brought the soup bowl to his mouth with both hands, and was about to take a big sip of it and had already taken action——

"I heard that Mr. Bao is going to retry the Yongzhou Shizi murder case."

"Scared, you also know about this case?"

"Of course I know, how can such a cruel father cook his own flesh and blood alive."

"Not to mention, I heard that when he was discovered, he was holding the child's head and chewing on it. Isn't this madness?"

"There are all the witnesses and material evidence, why does Mr. Bao want to retry the case?"

"I'm thinking that it's probably a dream from a ghost..."

The above dialogue proves the following two points:
One, the people have infinite energy in spreading falsehoods.

Second, the imagination of the common people is boundless.

At that time, Duanmucui couldn't help but burst into laughter when he heard the diners beside him express their opinions so solemnly.This smile gave birth to sorrow, and he blushed from the mouthful of noodle soup.

Diner A and B looked at Duanmucui with displeasure, and then continued the conversation just now.

"I heard that the trial will start tomorrow, can the common people be allowed to watch the trial?"

"Of course, the death row cases reviewed by the Kaifeng government can be watched by ordinary people."

"Scary, then I must go and see how hideous the murderer's face is..."

Next, the two made an appointment to meet tomorrow when and where to meet, and then they walked together. Then the two looked forward to the sowing of crops this autumn, and at the same time predicted the gratifying situation of the next spring harvest. Occupation should be a farmer.

Furthermore, we can draw such a conclusion: when various information dissemination methods were relatively backward at that time, the Yongzhou Shizi case had such a wide spread and audience, which shows that this case can be called a major case in the early Song Dynasty.

Since it is a major case, it is impossible for Duanmucui not to have heard of it.

In fact, not only had she heard about it, but she had also sent Xihualiu's disciples to investigate thoroughly.Of course, it is not a thorough investigation of the motive of the crime, but to investigate whether there are ghosts.

Conclusion: None.

Since there are no spirits and monsters, and the suspect was caught at the first crime scene, there is really no need for a retrial in this case.

That being the case, what is Kaifeng Mansion doing in this muddy water?
Duanmucui frowned while drinking the noodle soup and thought about it. In less than a quarter of the time for burning incense, she made a decision.

Since the trial will start tomorrow, and she happens to be free tomorrow, why not join in the fun and pay tribute to the majestic and majestic Qingtian who is handling the case.

On the second day, Duanmucui woke up early on purpose and rushed to Kaifeng Mansion excitedly.

It's a pity that she didn't even touch the door of Kaifeng mansion at all.

All kinds of people blocked the entrance of Kaifeng Mansion.The long line of people, ah no, it is a long pile, extending all the way to the outside of the street.On one or two occasions, Duanmucui was sure that he saw the officials of the Kaifeng mansion standing on top of the wall to ask the people outside to be quiet.

Duanmucui was dumbfounded, she took a few steps away from the crowd resentfully, and then prepared to leave.

Just as she turned around to leave, she suddenly saw a person.

To be precise, it was an octogenarian man standing proudly on the outside of the crowd who were pulling the crowd forward with a cane, blushing and thick-necked, very conspicuous.

Duanmucui looked at him for a while, then stepped forward and patted the old man's shoulder.

"Old man, can I take a step to speak?"

The old man was stunned for a moment, looked at Duanmucui, his expression turned to guard: "The old man and the girl don't know each other."

"No one knows each other from birth." Duanmucui said with a smile, "Could it be that you knew your parents or brothers and sisters when you were in the mother's womb, ah no, before the egg hatched?"

The old man's face changed suddenly.

"Let's go, take a step to talk." Duanmucui still smiled warmly, "I know that there is a noodle stall that makes good noodle soup, why don't I treat you?"

It was the same noodle stall that sold only noodle soup.

Duanmucui ate with relish, and the old man felt like sitting on pins and needles.

(End of this chapter)