The tongue flicked repeatedly, sampling scents, but detected no trace of large beasts.
It was quiet enough to hear the faint trickle of water beneath the scattered rocks.
Black Snake suddenly remembered to switch to thermal sensing. The colors around him instantly faded as he used the vision that perceived spirit bodies and restless ghosts, coldly surveying the trees and crevices.
Soon, he noticed something giving off an unusual glow. It resembled the fox's glow, but its color and aura were different.
He rounded a large tree and approached.
Gazing at the thing emitting that strange glow, Black Snake fell silent, trying to fit this unknown object into his understanding of the world.
Before him stood a rough rock covered in erosion marks, naturally shaped like a stone man standing halfway up the mountain.
Black Snake saw the rock's sheen waver slightly, as though it were expressing something, but paid it no mind. First, he judged that it posed no threat, then drew closer to investigate with his tongue.
He circled it a few times and confirmed that it was a rock.
Another mystery to puzzle over.
Black Snake lingered a while before leaving. There was little sunlight and little prey; he could hardly stay here forever.
Like a flowing black shadow, he crossed mountains and ridges, drinking whenever he encountered a mountain stream or a spring seeping from a rock crevice. Every so often, he raised his head high to look around. When he found a clear stream and tasted something familiar in its water, Black Snake knew that following it upstream would lead to the valley he knew.
The mountains still felt the most comfortable, after all.
No rain had fallen since spring began. The stream flowed slowly and lazily, and the path along the valley floor had become increasingly distinct.
A little bird landed on a rock beside the water. After pecking lightly at the surface a few times, it quickly dipped its little head, swaying from side to side and fluttering its wings merrily.
A long black shape slipped soundlessly over the pale rocks, startling the bird into flying away with a flurry of chirps.
Back in the valley, he picked a spot beside the path at random to bask in the sun.
Several people passed along the path, sending clear footstep vibrations through the ground. None noticed Black Snake coiled behind the roadside grass. He flicked his tongue slightly without raising his head even half an inch.
Though they shared the same spring sunshine, their paths never crossed. Only inches apart, yet each stood at the far end of the world.
The thatched cottage finally welcomed a visitor.
Chi Ke warmly received his friend. They sat beneath the shade of a tree in the courtyard, boiling spring water to make tea, their conversation filled with mountain weather and ways to identify medicinal herbs.
At first, the two chatted and laughed easily. But when they spoke of affairs beyond the mountains and the circumstances of their respective families, their words slowed.
The light in their faces dimmed as well.
The tea simmered softly on the stove. With so many matters weighing heavily on their hearts, even the clear tea in their cups tasted bitter.
After considering for a moment, Chi Ke asked softly.
"Brother Lu, could it be that you... have ended up in the same straits as me?"
Lu nodded with a bitter smile.
Tea leaves rose and sank in the cups.
"One wrong move on the board, and there's no catching up again. My branch is destined to fade into a few faint strokes of ink in the family genealogy. Better to bow my head early and spare myself the humiliation."
Chi Ke stroked his handsome sideburns, now a little shorter.
"Ah, I truly can't keep fighting. Anything with a chance of success never falls to us. What they give us is almost always impossible."
He paused, then continued.
"Unless we can accomplish something hopeless. But that sort of thing... is difficult."
Lu looked helpless.
"If it weren't difficult, they wouldn't give it to us."
Wisps of steam curled upward and vanished. The two sat facing each other in silence.
When the last wisp of steam dispersed from the cups before them, Chi Ke spoke.
"When will this turmoil end?"
This time, Lu did not hesitate.
"I hear those families have nearly finished their negotiations. The affairs of the world will soon be settled. Brother Chi, have you thought of leaving the mountains?"
Chi Ke sighed at this.
"I won't go out again. If I can't reach the Immortal Gate, let me be buried in these mountains."
With nothing to do over the winter, he had already chosen a spot.
Suddenly, he remembered something he cared about more.
"With the world in upheaval, have you heard of any extraordinary people taking action, Brother Lu?"
His friend Lu shook his head.
"I haven't."
Chi Ke felt keenly how distant and elusive the path to immortality was. He had searched bitterly without finding it. Had he obtained even a fraction of its true teachings, how could something sinister have invaded his body?
He sighed inwardly again.
Suddenly, a hunter's song drifted from the mountain path. It seemed the hunter had brought back a good haul. There would be decent food and wine to entertain his old friend that evening.
The page boy added water to the pot and deftly blew the dry pine needles in the hearth alight. Once the bluish smoke turned into orange-red flames, cooking smoke rose from the chimney, roughly piled together from mountain stones and yellow mud.
Toward evening, the sky unknowingly grew dark and overcast. Distant lead-gray clouds rose behind the mountain and piled layer upon layer.
The outlines of the mountains blurred in the damp air until they were difficult to distinguish.
It seemed night had arrived early. Just as the lamps and candles were lit, heavy rain suddenly came pouring down. Raindrops struck the leaves with sharp patters, and the forest clamored in the darkness.
The downpour continued deep into the night. The stream swelled, its churning torrents roaring.
Spending his first night in the valley, Lu was awakened by the noise.
Alongside the thunderous rush of mountain water, lightning repeatedly tore open the pitch-black night, illuminating the valley for an instant, again and again.
Since he could not sleep anyway, he simply got up and stood by the window, watching countless threads of rain pierce the woods and strike the leaves by the lightning's glow.
He wondered whether he could squeeze out a few lines of verse.
His idle gaze suddenly froze. Out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to glimpse something strange, and his back tightened with a prickling chill.
He jerked his head up toward the heights. His gaze pierced the curtain of rain, and by the lightning's glow, he saw an ink-black figure atop a giant rock, its head raised toward the sky!
Lightning flashed again and again. He was quite certain that it was a great snake!
Then, Chi Ke, who had been sleeping soundly, was shaken awake...
Black Snake had no idea that he had inadvertently frightened someone. After finally waiting out his long thirst for a rainstorm, he naturally had to breathe his fill atop the giant rock, greedily drawing in the rain-laden air and savoring the beauty of the world.
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My life in emojis: ️, , , ️
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Willing to lie about how we met
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Every bolt of lightning that split the night
revealed the repeated, faint rise and fall of Black Snake's throat.
The rain washed the dust and grime from his body. Beneath the lightning, his scales gleamed cold and hard.
Faintly, Black Snake felt his hunger easing, as though he was no longer quite so hungry. The chill brought waves of drowsiness, yet his mind remained unusually clear.
Since this rain-laden air could fill his belly, he had all the more reason to breathe diligently.
A spear of lightning plunged into a nearby peak.
There was almost no gap between the flash and the thunder. The deafening roar made his long body resonate with it, and cool, rain-laden air seeped throughout his body...
What Black Snake had not expected was an itch in several places on his body, growing steadily worse with the thunder.
Unable to keep breathing with his head raised, he thrashed and rolled violently atop the giant rock.
Lightning followed lightning.
Black Snake rolled off the heights and landed hard, tumbling down the slope. Instinctively, he found a sharp stone edge and pressed himself fiercely against it, scraping back and forth as though shedding his skin. His scales broke, leaking blood that mingled with rainwater and flowed into the soil. Black Snake saw thin parasites actually wriggling out of his wounds.
Twisting, rolling, rubbing with all his might...
He finally endured until the itching was gone, but his suffering was not over.
His tongue flicked faster. Raising his head, he contracted his belly rhythmically, pushing forward again and again, then opened his jaws and vomited hard!
He spat out a great puddle of mucus mixed with parasites.
When the vomiting ended, Black Snake, exhausted after all that rolling, rested where he lay, letting the icy rain wash his bedraggled body.
Only after a long while did he slowly climb back onto the giant rock and gradually coil up in the rain.
It was difficult for him to understand. He only knew that after the suffering passed, his whole body felt much fresher.
After midnight, the rain slackened, its drops thinning into sparse, fine threads. The clouds split open, revealing a few stars through the gaps before hiding them again.
Mist rose in the dripping forest.
As his weakness receded, Black Snake raised his head high, greedily swallowing the mist that spread after the rain while strength slowly returned to his body.