I cursed under my breath, thinking to myself that I was really in a bad spot—could it be that this thing had come back from the dead? However, at that moment, I had completely steeled myself. I thought to myself that even if it were a zombie, this fresh rice dumpling didn’t have a jaw and couldn’t bite me to death. Just as I was preparing for a showdown, I suddenly noticed a fiery red snake’s head poking out from under the tongue, about the size of a fist, with a huge comb on its head. As it twisted its head, the entire snake slithered out from under the tongue and crawled onto a pile of branches.

The well where the胖子 and I were standing was less than two or three meters away from that pile of branches. After the snake crawled onto the pile, it slowly made its way down the branches, its body quite long—over a meter. It was even longer than the one that had bitten Ah Ning to death.

This snake had evidently been hiding inside the corpse in that pile of branches and had been disturbed by me. It quickly climbed up the stone wall along the pile of branches. The wall was very uneven, and the snake moved up it silently like a gecko, coming toward us. I realized it was bad news; I didn’t have time to evade. In a moment of panic, I quietly slid down from the well’s opening and submerged myself in the water.

I thought it would be startled and come out of the water, but I was already more than two meters away from the pile of branches. I looked up and saw that the snake had been attracted by the胖子. Right next to it was the well opening where the胖子 was, and the snake made its way down the stone wall until it reached the well opening. It immediately realized that the胖子 was alive, paused, and turned its head a few times.

My heart sank; I thought it couldn’t be planning to bite the胖子. That seemed impossible. The胖子 lay there like a dead fish. If the snake wasn’t disturbed, it wouldn’t actively bite something, after all, venom is very precious.

Suddenly, the snake started moving again, crawling into the well directly toward the胖子’s head, and it actually coiled around the胖子’s forehead, seemingly trying to burrow into his mouth.

I thought, “Oh no, it’s going to go in and supplement the胖子’s protein!” I immediately looked for something to throw at it to drive it away but found that I couldn’t grab anything in the water. I had no choice but to splash water with my hands to hit the snake.

That was truly a foolish decision. If it had been another type of snake, it might have been scared off, but I had forgotten that this snake was sinister. When the snake was splashed by the water, it recoiled and immediately spotted me. It straightened its body, raised its comb, and emitted a series of high-pitched “cooing” sounds, seemingly threatening me.

I thought it might be effective, so I continued splashing water. Before I could make a second splash, the snake suddenly contracted and spotted me. Then, like an arrow released from a bow, it shot up into the air. It burst out of the well opening, dancing gracefully in an elegant figure-eight pattern just above the water’s surface, and in less than a second, it was right in front of me.

I only saw a flash of red light and instinctively raised my hand to block it. The entire snake coiled around my arm and shoulder; it felt as thick as my arm and was incredibly slippery. In that instant, I almost saw its venomous fangs; my mind buzzed, and I cursed loudly as I tried to shake it off.

That was a wild move; I must have used all my strength in that throw. The snake was actually flung several meters away, but before it could hit the water, it suddenly twisted around, its tail slapping the water and propelling it back up, coming right at me along the surface.

I turned and fled, using all my strength to thrash about. I darted forward and plunged into the water, changing direction and swimming several strokes before squeezing into a gap beneath some branches to hide.

I stayed hidden until I could no longer hold my breath, then emerged from the water, gasping for air and looking around. I tried hard to suppress my heavy breathing, scanning my surroundings to see if I had tricked the snake.

I thought to myself that a snake is still just a beast; it wouldn’t understand human ways, and this simple little trick should work at least to some extent.

To my surprise, after looking around, I saw no sign of the snake on the water’s surface; it seemed to have not followed me. I felt a wave of relief wash over me, thinking I had narrowly escaped with my life. Just as I was managing a wry smile, before I could even fully open my mouth, I suddenly heard a sinister chuckle behind my head.

I was already on edge and felt a chill run through me. Turning around, I immediately saw that blood-red chicken-snake standing upright right behind me, its venomous yellow eyes looking down at me with malice.

I felt a lump in my throat and instantly wanted to dive back into the water, but I saw it shake its comb and suddenly let out a haunting voice: “Little Third Master?”