Chapter 54 Three Cave Village

It is said that Ye Zilian and others said goodbye to Yin Zhuangyi of Yingtian Prefecture and embarked on the road back to Beijing. Yang Quan suggested taking the road and returning the same way, but Zilian seemed to be not satisfied with this life of traveling abroad and insisted on returning home from another road. The little stone is only for the young master Ye Zilian, so the minority obeys the majority, and Yang Quan has to listen to Zilian and take another road. As a result, the road they chose is not like the prosperous land of a restaurant in three steps and a teahouse in five steps, but a sparsely populated place. It was midsummer. In order to avoid the high temperature during the day, the three of them got up early every day. As a result, there were very few teahouses that could rest their feet to escape the summer.

On this day, the three of them walked as usual. They saw that it was noon, but they did not see a teahouse or family where they could rest their feet. The sun is high, the flowers and plants beside the road are drooping, and the stones between the flowers and plants are even hot and difficult to sit. Therefore, although the mountains here are stacked and there is a unique scenery, Zilian can't feel the happiness of visiting famous mountains and enjoying the famous water. The water around me has already been drunk. I am not only thirsty, but also tired along the way. How can there be such a barren place when it is closer to Tokyo City?

After a few hours in a row, Yang Quan's feet were better, but Ye Zilian was really unseverable. Not to mention the little stone, carrying luggage all the way, walking and stopping, it is almost difficult to move. Yang Quan wanted to blame Zilian for not listening to his advice and insisted on taking such a dangerous road. It can be seen that Zilian was so tired that he was breathless and couldn't bear it. Zilian did not expect that there could be such a deserted place in the Song Dynasty, where there were many restaurants everywhere. For today's plan, we have to walk further to see if there is a cooler place or a stream or something. But Ye Zilian and Xiao Shitou really can't walk.

Just as Yang Quan'an and Zilian and the little stone rested first, and they went to the front to explore the way first, the three saw a picker coming from the front. Zilian seemed to see a savior and stood up to ask for directions. This person, not far ahead, has a small village called Sandong Village, which is named because there is a three-hole mountain around the village, in which there are three caves connected by holes. In addition, there is another one on this mountain, called Snake Mountain, because there are often snakes in the mountain, and poisonous snakes are rampant. If you are not careful, you will be bitten and may even die in the mountain. If you want to go to Tokyo and continue on this road, this mountain is the only way. Fortunately, there is Zheng Langzhong in Sandong Village who has been practicing medicine for generations and has lived here for a long time. Therefore, there are a lot of drugs to treat snake venom at home. If you can get some first, you will have nothing to do over this mountain. However, Zheng Langzhong's personality is special. His medicine can only be used to rescue people who are unfortunately bitten by snakes in the village, and he never sells it to outsiders.

Anyway, the saying of a village in front gave hope to Zilian and others. The three of them suddenly cheered up. According to the direction pointed by the firewood picker, the three quickly arrived at Sandong Village. This is a small village composed of only a dozen families, and each family lives in an ordinary thatched hut. For the arrival of the three people, it has obviously become the number one event in the village, because few outsiders come to this village. The villagers rely on the mountain to cut firewood or grow some grain. They have to walk dozens of miles to reach the city, sell or exchange some goods. It is a very closed small village. Where do you often find these well-dressed people? Needless to say, Zilian has gone out to travel and dressed in ordinary clothes, but it is still Lingluo's addition. Even the small stones that serve Zilian are very exquisite. It can be seen that they are rich and noble families from big places.

Although there are more than a dozen families, there is actually a village head, an elder named Quanda Middle School. Seeing the hustle and bustle outside, he naturally came out to see. Ye Zilian was very polite. Seeing that others said that the village head was coming, he naturally came forward to salute and explained his intention. Although the village is not rich, they are all hospitable. As soon as the village head heard that the three people were going to rush to the capital, they invited several people to their homes. Zilian followed the village head to turn left and right before arriving at the village head's house. It turned out that the village head's house lived in the closest place to the Sandong Mountain, and according to the village head, the site was also chosen by himself, just to set an example to prove that he was not afraid of poisonous snakes and his determination to defend the safety of the whole village.

After drinking some water, eating, and resting for a while, Zilian regained his spirit. Zilian asked the village head, "When I just asked the way, I heard that the three-hole mountain behind is the only way to Tokyo, but as rumors say, there are many snakes in the three-hole mountain?"

The village head said, "Even if the prince doesn't ask, I'm just going to say it. These three cave mountains are famous snake mountains, and there are many poisonous snakes. Now it's midsummer, and the ground is wet. If you want to cross the Snake Mountain at this time, you really have to be careful.

"I heard that Zheng Langzhong has a medicine to relieve snake poison. Can we ask for one or two?"

"One of Zheng Lang has medicine, but he has a quirk. If there is a person who has been bitten by a snake in this village, he will treat him for free, but the medicine will never be sold to outsiders."

"Where is such a truth? Isn't it even better to give people medicine in advance to prevent problems? You must wait for someone to be bitten by a snake and die before you are willing to help them. Is this a life-saving and helping the wounded?

"Listen to me, there is also a source in it. Zheng Langzhong's father was originally a famous Langzhong in this village, so Zheng Langzhong has been seriously ill since he was a child. But Zheng Lang is arrogant and unwilling to be like his father. He is only trapped in this small Sandong village to practice medicine all his life. When he grows up, he is about to stand out and make a name in the outside world. But where is the flower world outside as simple as he thought? At the age of 20, he left Sandong Village and ran into obstacles everywhere. Although he was good at medicine, no one was willing to buy him. The pharmacy he borrowed money to open was also smashed by a mess because he offended the local snake. In this way, after wandering outside for ten years, nothing has been achieved. Maybe people will become more mature after experiencing suffering, unlike the frivolity of a teenager. At the age of 30, Zheng Langzhong returned to the village. From then on, he studied medicine from his father and never mentioned leaving home again.

At this time, the village head took a sip of water, paused, and then continued to say, "Ten years have passed peacefully. One day, a team of rich businessmen dressed more luxuriously than you passed by here. They also went to Tokyo, but they got lost and accidentally entered the village. Hearing that there was Snake Mountain in front of him, he had to use two ingots of gold to buy all the snake poison from Zheng Lang's middle-aged father. At that time, Zheng Langzhong's father didn't have many medicine in his hand, which was only enough for 20 or 30 people. After counting the number of them, there were exactly ten people. Zheng Langzhong's father was kind-hearted and worried that if they were bitten and died in vain when they crossed the mountain, they would die in vain. But he was worried that someone in the village would be bitten by a snake, so he left a bottle for each household, and the rest was sold to this group of rich businessmen. Coincidentally, Zheng Langzhong's father was about to go to the mountain to study snake poison, so he walked with this group of rich businessmen. As a result, before Zheng Langzhong's father returned home, Zheng Langzhong came to me, so I mobilized many villagers to look for people in the mountains. When I finally found Zheng Langzhong's father, he had died of the deep snake poisoning. When I went to look for the rich businessmen again, I didn't even see a figure. But obviously, there were many messy footprints next to Zheng Langzhong's father's body, and those rich merchants were present when Zheng Langzhong was poisoned by snakes. However, all of them had medicine in their hands, but they couldn't help it. They watched the drug seller and their Langzhong die. Since then, Zheng Langzhong has set such strange rules, only to save the snakes and poisonous people in the village, and will never sell medicine to any outsiders!"