Serpent Sarcophagus

Chapter 6 Driven Away from the Village

When Mrs. Quebec saw Stowy, her feeling seemed to be a mixture of both fear and respect. She was

trembling all over as she knelt, but she dared not move even a muscle.

Stowy’s low-pitched voice sounded again, “I have been protecting the Quebec family for many years.

Are you going to disregard my help?”

“Forgive me, my lord. I dare not, I dare not!” Mrs. Quebec's voice trembled.

“Do what you’re supposed to do!” Stowy turned into the bracelet again and wrapped himself around my

wrist.

Not until Stowy disappeared did Mrs. Quebec get up. Her blue coat seemed to be thoroughly soaked.

She stared at me, while holding the door like she was going to fall.

Her eyes were piercing as if she can see right through me. It made me panic.

I was soon pulled aside by my grandma, who pointed ahead, asking me to step forward.

“Now, you should return and get ready. Tomorrow we will look for that sarcophagus.” Mrs. Quebec said

while holding the door. She was overstressed. “And Aurora, remember to hold the white goose tight on

your way back. And be careful!”

The big white goose had its feet pricked and was put down.

Realizing the seriousness of the matter, I hurriedly held the goose up.

“Mr. Han, the one who guarded your village, offer him something nice and better ask him to watch the

door for your house tonight! Otherwise, I am afraid you won’t last through the night.” Mrs. Quebec

stared at the black bracelet on my hand and said coldly, “Even with lord Dracula to protect you, you

can’t defeat that ghost serpent!”

Listening to her faint voice, I felt a chill inside.

With her promise to help us locate the sarcophagus, my grandmother was pleased, and she returned

home with me.

On the road back, grandma told me, “Quebec took over the channeling business after her aunt died.

But her ill temper and constantly driving people out had earned her a bad reputation. Few people knew

this business now. Now, even fewer people are willing to come to her door.

I had to say I was impressed that she had the strength to pull the old woman out.

Nowadays, many motorcycles were running across the nearby villages. My grandmother and I took one

to get home.

Grandma also told me that every village has a guardian, which is usually the person who had

committed unforgivable sins in the last life and was stripped off a fraction of the soul, and has sworn to

guard the village with his or her life to atone the sins.

This person was usually very kind in heart and could guard the village against disasters, but may look

dumb because his soul was not whole.

Mr. Han was the one who was guarding our village.

Thinking of Mrs. Quebec's words, grandma stopped the motor at the village entrance. She tried to coax

Mr. Han to our house for dinner and to stay overnight.

“I won’t go. Snakes are in your house!” Mr. Han sat on the stone tablet that was knocked down by me

earlier, and shook his head, “A lot of them! I won’t go.”

“There’s no snake,” Grandma explained impatiently.

I looked at Mr. Han, while the thoughts of the snake babies in the eggs, and the incident with David’s

wife struck me. I pulled at my grandma’s sleeve and said, “Leave it.”

“Shush.” Grandma went to pull Mr. Han.

I stopped her quickly. “Never mind. Whatever might happen, we can deal with it. Why drag others

along? “

Mr. Han was actually quite nice. He would always do his best to help whoever was hosting an event.

Villagers often bullied him and gave him all sorts of dirty works but only let him eat the leftovers. And he

was okay with it. Mrs. Quebec said he can protect me against the disaster. But the accident that

happened in David Russell’s house made me realized that we were letting Mr. Han die for me.

“Aurora, don't pull me!” Grandma tried to grab Mr. Han again, coaxing him, “I will cook a chicken, big

rooster, very fat! And you can have the whole chicken! And drinks too, beer, wine, I will give you

whatever you want.”

“Granny!” Seeing grandma beguiled him like tricking a child, I shouted seriously, “Don’t do this, okay?”

I pushed Mr. Han away, “There’re snakes in my house, and I have one on my body too! If you ever

come to my house, you will be dead! Do you understand me? Go away! Run!”

Mr. Han looked at me and giggled, stretching out his dirty hand, pointed at my grandma. “Fascinating,

your granddaughter is fascinating!”

Grandma stared at me, with tears in her eyes, before she swung her hands fiercely and went home.

Mr. Han was still there, giggling, “Fascinating! Fascinating!”

I looked at him, taking out all the cash from the bag and gave it to him, and then I cruelly said to him, “If

you dare to come to my house, I will beat the hell out of you. Got it?”

Mr. Han ran toward the village shop with the money while laughing.

Holding the goose in my hand, I hurried forward to catch up with grandma.

She looked at me with a reddish nose and tearful eyes. “Who do you think I do this for? Am I the evil

old lady? Who do you think I do it for? Do you want me to see you die in front of me? I can’t do that! “

“Granny!” I tried to pull her, but Grandma pushed me away and strode home.

I ran behind her with the goose in my arms.

Halfway back home, Aunt Luth, our neighbor came to us hurriedly. “Granny Dragon, I am looking for

you. Your chickens and ducks are all dead. Go home quickly and check it! There are a lot of snakes in

your house. Could it be that your son came back to collect the snakes but left the cage open?”

“The last time when I saw so many snakes were at your granddaughter Aurora’s birth!” Aunt Luth said

hastily before she noticed me. Then she looked at me for a moment and said with slight

embarrassment. “You’re back?”

Grandma sucked her nose and nodded toward aunt Luth. Then she ran quickly toward home.

“Thank you, Aunt Luth.” I hurried to catch up.

Just when I ran off a few steps, I heard Aunt Luth in the back snap, “Eww. No wonder so many snakes,

the snake lady is back. Bah!”

The moment I turned towards her, she smiled at me awkwardly.

When we arrived home, the yard is full of dead chickens, and various colors of snakes were crawling

among the dead chickens.

Grandma was so angry that she grasped the big white goose out of my arms and threw it into the yard.

“It took its revenge here while I am gone.” Stowy’s voice was in my ear.

Hearing the hiss from the bracelet on my wrist, all the snakes fled immediately.

The big white goose flapped its wings and ran after the snakes.

With her entire body shaking out of anger, grandma checked the chicken pens, then went back to the

pond to check the ducks in the bamboo fence, the pigsty, and the rabbit house.

All, without exception, were killed by snakes.

Grandma's body seemed to have stooped even lower when she turned to me, and then picked up the

shovel silently to carry the dead animals to the backyard.

I helped dig a pit with the hoe. Watching grandma putting the dead animals one by one into the pit, I

just felt sad.

I tried to speak to her, but her mouth was tightly shut, clearly out of anger.

We buried the dead chickens, ducks, and rabbits. There were two dead pigs in the pigsty, which

grandma and I could not move. She called my Uncle Peter for help.

“Grandma.” I refilled the pit and tried to comfort grandma.

She held me in her arms and cried bitterly. “Aurora, I was not a good person! I want to have Mr. Han

die for you. But if I could die for you myself, I will certainly do it!”

“My Aurora, my sweet granddaughter, how did it fall on you?” Grandma hugged me, with tears falling

on both of her cheeks. Finally, all day’s bad mood was let out.

I hugged grandma as well. “It doesn’t matter, we do have Stowy, don’t we? He will protect me.”

The black bracelet on the wrist heard this, stirred. I seemed to have heard Stowy’s deep laugh.

Uncle Peter was meticulous. When he came, he even brought along a few others from our clan. All of

them were covered with the smell of alcohol. They sprinkled sulfur over my house before they entered.

Grandma led them to the pigsty to drag the pigs out. When they came to the backyard and saw me,

none of them had given me a friendly face.

Uncle let some of the men fill the pit, and said to me, “Aurora, come here.”

Grandma was looking at the two pigs with pitiful eyes. They were raised before the next spring festival

arrived, which had been growing for more than six months in the pigsty and become as heavy as over

fifty kilos.

The pigs died rather miserably, with their stomachs bit through.

My uncle took the advantage of my grandmother's absence and took me to the front yard, “You have

seen what happened to your family. You know what will happen when you come back to the village

again. Go away before it is too late! And leave the village at once!”

I look at him, surprised. Looking sullen, he lit a cigarette. “This is not my idea. The men I brought here

all agree that it’s right to get you out of the village.”

“All you know was that when you were born, snakes worshipped you at the side of the road. But what

you didn’t know is that the village was flooded with snakes that year, and a lot of chickens and ducks

were killed, the pigs too.” Uncle Peter blew a smoke ring, and said to me in a solemn voice, “Just say

goodbye to your grandma and I will send you out of the village by motorcycle. Alright?”