Chiang Songhai had previously collected a piece of snakeskin and was aware of the presence of large snakes in the mountain, so he was somewhat worried when he heard the talk.
"There must be more than one python in these mountains, we all need to be careful."
"Brother-in-law, the snake-repelling medicine you’ve been making lately is more effective than before. In our recent trips up the mountain, the small snakes all avoided us. It should probably work on the big snakes too," Ge Dejun said.
Chiang Songhai smiled and nodded.
What they didn’t know was that the few types of herbs Chiang Songhai used to make the snake-repelling medicine had been secretly replaced by Chiang Xiao with herbs from her Space.
The medicinal potency of herbs grown in the Space was naturally much stronger than ordinary ones.
Last time they went up the mountain together, Chiang Songhai had harvested some herbs which she discreetly took a small cutting of each to plant in her Space. Without half a month, they grew vigorously; therefore, when Chiang Songhai was preparing the medicine, she was able to swap the herbs.
She had ground quite a bit of the powder, and Ge Liutao used the remaining scraps of cloth from sewing quilt covers and pillowcases to stitch several small cloth bags for them, which were filled with the powder and tied to their footwear and belts. Small snakes fled far away from them.
This remarkably effective result left them all pleasantly surprised.
Therefore, Ge Dejun and Xu Linjiang held a great deal of respect for Chiang Songhai, thinking that although he was too honest, he truly had real skills.
And honesty wasn’t a fault anyway.
"No matter what, being cautious is always the right choice," said Chiang Songhai, straightening his back unconsciously, energized by the rare praise and respect he was receiving after such a long time being undervalued and scorned by the people of the Old Chiang Family and Ho Laidi.
Everyone needs appreciation; having been oppressed by the Old Chiang Family and cursed by Ho Laidi for so long, he had started to believe he was indeed useless and had grown accustomed to being looked down upon.
Yet with someone’s appreciation, he realized that he could actually be useful.
"Grandpa is right, no one has completely understood Bai Gu Mountain. Even though we have been here a few times, we can’t be too careless," said Chiang Xiao, agreeing with Chiang Songhai.
At the same time, she felt slightly troubled. What should she do with the large snake in her Space now?
She definitely didn’t want to keep the snake in her Space.
But releasing it nearby was also undesirable; she had always been on edge, uncertain if the large snake might suddenly appear since Ge Dejun and the others frequently visited the mountain, posing a constant threat.
There weren’t any forest rangers like those in later times, and she couldn’t possibly deliver the snake to the relevant authorities herself. That would definitely be tough to explain and too conspicuous.
The best solution was to relocate it into the deep woods of the old forest.
But how could she get into the deep woods of the old forest?
In fact, Chiang Xiao now dared to enter the mountain, since she had the strong backing of the Space, which made her fearless in the face of danger. But finding an excuse was not easy.
Entering the deep mountains, one might not make it back in a day, and she would need an excuse for not returning home overnight.
Forget it, she would find a way later. For now, the Space was vast, and she could just move the snake to the farthest corner and avoid getting too close to it.
"What were those three men doing up the mountain?" Xu Linjiang, having heard about the potential presence of a large snake, looked cautiously towards the edge of the forest, where he found three sharp machetes that he picked up.
Chiang Xiao observed the three machetes, her eyes chilling slightly as she walked to the spot that had felt strange to her earlier and crouched down to examine it closely.
"I suspect they bear us ill will. Let’s check for any traps."