Chapter 9: Shangpo Mountain

The garbage recycling station was especially quiet in the deep night.

A king cobra over four meters long slowly slithered out from within the recycling station.

Its entire body gleamed with glossy black scales; its neck gradually widened from cylindrical to flattened, eyes blazing with malice, mouth open as it hissed a warning at An Sheng: “Fufu.”

The king cobra inside the recycling station had markings and scale coloration vastly different from ordinary king cobras—it was a violently mutated individual.

Foxes are not on the king cobra’s menu.

Yet it still glared with murderous intent, radiating ferocity and treating An Sheng as one of its prey.

“Yingying.”

Seeing the king cobra glare at him, An Sheng did not retreat; instead, he wagged his tail, sidestepping slowly to circle toward the snake’s blind spot.

“Boy! Do you know the name of An’s past life? I am none other than Song Jiang, the famed figure of Nan Cheng Tea Street!”

“An loves black silk—everyone in Nan Cheng Tea Street knows it!”

An Sheng grinned wickedly, wildly wagging his tail to distract the king cobra, while emitting soft “yingying” sounds that made the snake, fixated on him, suddenly neglect its rear.

Between An Sheng and the king cobra, there was truly no history—they had never met before, and this first encounter was already a disaster.

In a certain sense, the king cobra was the wild overlord of Zhangxizhen, highly intelligent.

It never clashed with villagers, merely ruling from trash bins and recycling stations.

That day, An Sheng returned to Zhangxizhen for the second time, having just mooched a meal at the village chief’s house.

As he passed a roadside trash bin, the king cobra lifted its head, locking its gaze onto An Sheng.

This stinking outsider beggar—threatening! This brat must not be allowed to live!

Without warning, the king cobra shot out from the bin and attacked An Sheng, who was dragging a bottle of Maotai past the trash.

Had Yu Xueqing not grabbed An Sheng that day, he would’ve been flattened into a straight black silk, twisted into a beautiful serpent leg.

“Fuu—”

Seeing An Sheng sway and wiggle to draw its attention, circling closer,

the king cobra sensed it had lost the initiative—if it didn’t strike now, it might be cornered by the fox and beaten senseless with blunt force.

As it swiftly slithered forward, the king cobra spat venom toward An Sheng’s eyes, aiming to create an opening for a surprise strike.

“You black silk!”

An Sheng dropped low, dodging the venom, then sprang upright and leaped backward.

In the instant the king cobra lunged close, An Sheng raised his paw like a human fist and delivered a sharp slap to the snake’s neck—right above the spoon.

“Pam—”

The twenty-pound king cobra flew sideways like it had been hit by a cargo van, crashing onto the asphalt, its entire body dazed, eyes spinning with stars.

An Sheng pushed off with all four paws, darting behind the snake and slamming one paw onto its skull.

“Black silk! Who goes hunting with a spoon sticking out of their head?!”

An Sheng extended both paws, pinning the snake’s spoon firmly to the ground and smashing it down hard.

The king cobra’s head banged violently against the asphalt—silent the entire time.

“Kuang kuang kuang—”

Under An Sheng’s head-patting assault, the king cobra nodded its head over a hundred times in seconds—the spoon flew off, the snake went rigid.

“Haven’t patted a spicy strip in ages—I’m getting actual happiness from this.”

An Sheng exhaled slowly, gazing at the unconscious king cobra, a smug smile spreading across his face.

When he lived in Xia Bei District, the forest was full of roe deer, wild boars, plump bamboo rats, and occasionally black bears or tigers.

Those big, tough dads—he couldn’t pin them down. Only spicy strips and rodents bowed meekly.

An Sheng had immense experience pinning spicy strips in the forest.

Spicy strips had such a long casting animation—he’d just circle behind and kick them onto a fire for roasting.

“Pack it up and take it!”

An Sheng licked his lips but suppressed the urge to slurp the black silk like noodles, instead rummaging through the recycling station for a snakeskin bag.

He stuffed the king cobra into the bag and dragged it uphill.

An Sheng hadn’t forgotten: his main task today was investigating the cause of the rodent infestation in Yu Xueqing’s tea field.

This black silk was his ultimate weapon against the rodents—otherwise, he’d never have fought a king cobra in a garbage station.

Wherever snakes defecate, you can find it—why come to this stinking recycling station?

“Zizizi—”

An Sheng tied the bag shut with rope and sprinted along the road, dragging the king cobra uphill.

The snakeskin bag scraped against the asphalt, producing a steady “sisi susu” sound.

Chen Fengshui, sipping tea and cooling off in his courtyard, heard the odd noise, looked up, and immediately spotted the fox sprinting with a dragging bag—his eyebrows twitched twice: “...”

Deep night, white fox, dragging heavy object at full speed...

What would the village chief think?

Chen Fengshui retracted his wandering gaze, lowered his head earnestly to his phone, muttering to himself:

“Times have progressed, technology has advanced, the legal system is complete—hit a National Two vehicle under five years, hit a National Two vehicle under five years...”

“Retirement’s near—let it become a spirit, fine. But don’t go licking a cat’s ass for thrills.”

“Win, you go to jail. Lose, you go to hospital, then jail.”

The village chief glanced at his front door, picked up the measuring tape from the windowsill, and checked whether his door was leaning.

He didn’t stop by Chen’s house because An Sheng had tight timing and heavy duties.

It took half an hour to reach Shangpo Mountain, and another half hour to climb up.

Greeting old Chen, asking for water—those could wait until he came back down.

After spending nearly forty minutes, An Sheng arrived at the other side of Shangpo Mountain, at an altitude of over sixteen hundred meters—the Xiapao Road tea plantation area, where Yu Xueqing’s contracted tea fields lay.

“Zhi zhi zhi?”

At night, the Xiapao Road tea fields were livelier than at dawn—mouse squeaks echoed from all directions.

Well-fed mountain rats squeaked “zhi zhi” as they reproduced wildly across the tea fields.

Under the moonlight, An Sheng could clearly see male mountain rats driving big cars.

“The tea field’s name was already terrible—this place’s atmosphere is utterly lewd!”

Sniffing the heavy stench of the mountain rats, An Sheng’s expression grew strange—there were far more rats here than when he’d last come.

Rats breed fast, sure—but he’d already dropped over thirty different snakes here before.

Even if mountain rats reproduced quickly, could they outpace thirty snakes’ feeding speed?

Though mountain rats in Xia Dong were indeed plump, their aggressive, greedy nature meant their maximum size was only seventeen centimeters.

Could they possibly have eaten thirty large snakes?

An Sheng didn’t believe it.

But the facts were right before him: all the snakes he’d released were gone, and the mountain rats were throwing glitter parties on the hillsides.

Yu Xueqing’s tea field was definitely strange.

Thinking of this, An Sheng glanced at the king cobra, now awake and glaring at him resentfully.

“I didn’t want to do this—but given the situation, this black silk might get overfed and die.”

In the forest, rats burrow, but foxes aren’t bad at digging either.

Humans in cities need cars and houses to marry, but foxes need dens too—foxes are skilled at digging underground burrows, even rivaling beavers in building elaborate homes.

The mountain rats here are reproducing abnormally. To eliminate the infestation, he must find the root cause—

“Ying ying ying—”

An Sheng’s face hardened like a homeroom teacher sneaking behind a student during self-study, bounding into the tea field and loudly yelping:

“You throw glitter parties without inviting me? You Xia Dong rodents are so selfish!”

“Such behavior leaves me no choice but to pay you a home visit!”

“Now—room inspection!”

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(End of chapter)