Chapter 24

In the middle of the courtyard floor, a large brown python was coiled!

The snake was 【missing length】 long, with a spear-shaped spot on its head and neck, and dense scales covered its entire body, with its belly bulging high, clearly containing undigested food.

It looked extremely terrifying!

Jiang Wan shrank into her second brother's arms, trembling, her voice filled with tears.

"Tie Dan, Tie Dan brought it back..."

Jiang Zhan hurriedly patted her back to comfort: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid; it's dead and can't move."

Jiang Cheng gathered his courage and stepped forward, poking it with a stick.

It didn't move at all; sure enough, it was dead through and through.

He looked at the dog sitting on the side and asked in disbelief: "Tie Dan, did you really catch this big snake?"

The dog barked twice at him.

*Woof, woof! *

That proud little look clearly said: *Of course it was caught by your dog master; who else has this ability? *

Jiang Cheng was shocked.

Tie Dan was raised by him with his own hands, always thin and skinny; let alone catching a snake, even catching a mouse was a struggle! How could it suddenly become so powerful?

"Was it originally a dead snake, and you just picked it up?" he asked suspiciously.

Hearing this, the dog was unhappy.

*Slap*, it slapped the hundred-catty python away with one paw!

Everyone was startled.

Jiang Cheng swallowed hard; okay, he believed it—this snake was really caught by their own skinny dog.

But why?

The youth touched his head and couldn't figure it out; could it be that even the Heavens couldn't stand the people of the eldest branch coming over to bully them, so they cast a spell to make Tie Dan powerful to protect them?

Seeing his tangled look, Du Ruo coughed twice without changing her expression.

"Well, it's a good thing that Tie Dan has become powerful; we won't have to worry about not having meat to eat in the future," she said with a smile. "If it can catch such a big snake, then catching pheasants and rabbits is just a matter of one paw."

Jiang Cheng's eyes lit up, and he immediately became happy.

"Right, right, right, catch a few rabbits back tomorrow to play with Wan'er; they must be alive!"

Tie Dan wagged its tail and walked lightly toward Jiang Wan.

Du Ruo hurriedly stopped it: "Go wash up first; look, your mouth is still full of blood; don't scare Wan'er!"

She also said to Jiang Zhan: "Second Brother, you take Wan'er to play in the back; leave this snake to me and Third Brother to deal with."

Jiang Zhan agreed and led his sister toward the back of the house.

Walking to the corner, he looked back at Du Ruo with a complex expression.

Jiang Wan shook his hand: "What's wrong, Second Brother?"

Jiang Zhan came back to his senses, shook his head, and smiled: "Nothing, just wanted to see how Sister-in-law and the others would deal with that snake."

"Second Brother, let's not watch, okay? Wan'er is scared."

"Okay, let's not watch, let's not watch..."

How would Du Ruo deal with that snake?

Naturally, by gutting it!

Snake gall can brighten the eyes, snake oil can protect the skin, snake blood can treat rheumatism, and snake skin can resist aging.

Not to mention snake meat; it can be eaten!

It is rich in protein and various vitamins and minerals, prolonging life and enhancing immunity; the benefits are too numerous to count.

It can be said that the whole python is a treasure, not to mention such a large one.

However, with Du Ruo's current conditions, except for the snake gall which could barely be dug out, there was no way to operate on the others; it required certain processing means.

"Little San, bring a small knife." She said.

Jiang Cheng was circling the snake's corpse, and when he heard this, he was stunned for a moment: "Sister-in-law, what are you doing?"

Du Ruo rolled her eyes at him: "Stupid, what else can a knife do? Of course, it's for cutting things."

Jiang Cheng said "Oh."

Soon he went into the house and brought back a dagger; this dagger was used by Jiang Li for hunting and was very sharp.

Du Ruo had Jiang Cheng flip the snake over, revealing its yellowish-white belly, and then found the position of the snake gall and made a cut.

"*Ah! *" A scream came from outside the courtyard.

Du Ruo: "... Who's there?"

It gave her a big scare; she thought this snake had become a spirit.

Jiang Cheng immediately ran out to check, but only saw a long-haired girl in a pink dress running away with an extremely embarrassed posture.

He touched his head in confusion and turned back to close the courtyard gate.

"Who was it?" Du Ruo asked.

"Didn't see the face clearly, but it looked a bit familiar; it seemed to be the cousin."

Jiang Lian'er? What was she doing running over here? Could it be that her hands were itchy again, wanting to steal something from their second branch?

Du Ruo was too lazy to think about this; anyway, with Tie Dan, the strongest bodyguard, sitting in town, the old house wouldn't be able to take advantage of them.

She turned her attention back to her hands, carefully feeling for the gallbladder, and then dug it out entirely.

It was actually as big as a thumb!

And it was emerald green; this was the snake gall with the highest medicinal value!

Du Ruo was overjoyed and had Jiang Cheng find a thread to tie the bile duct to prevent bile leakage.

After taking the snake gall, the next step was the snake body.

Jiang Cheng had a headache: "In such hot weather, it will stink in a few days, and the four of us can't finish eating it."

Eating it was impossible—not that Du Ruo couldn't cook it, but she was afraid of scaring Jiang Zhan and Jiang Wan.

Especially Jiang Wan; she would probably rather starve to death than taste a bite.

"Then don't eat it; take it to the town tomorrow and sell it." It's worth quite a bit of money.

Jiang Cheng also agreed, so he moved the snake to a cool place and sprinkled water on it from time to time so it wouldn't stink too quickly.

Lunch was stir-fried green beans and tofu fish head soup; the fish was caught by Tie Dan while washing its mouth in the pond, weighing three catties, a full pot.

The whole family ate to their heart's content.

However, when Du Ruo placed the steamed snake gall in front of Jiang Zhan, the beautiful youth's face changed instantly.

"This is..."

"Yes, you guessed right."

Du Ruo looked at him with a smile: "Hurry up and eat it while it's hot; this is a good thing, cooling and brightening the eyes, just right for a diligent scholar like you."

Jiang Zhan opened his mouth with difficulty, wanting to say something but stopped.

"... Thank you, Sister-in-law."

Sister-in-law's painstaking efforts, how could he live up to them?

No matter how hard it was to swallow, he had to swallow it!

Jiang Wan covered her eyes, wanting to watch but not daring to.

Jiang Cheng gloated on the side, laughing: "Second Brother, this is the snake gall Sister-in-law dug out with her own hands, oh. She couldn't bear to eat it herself, and even Wan'er didn't get a share; it's left just for you, so you must taste it carefully!"

Taste it carefully? That would be bitter to death.

Jiang Zhan's handsome face turned even darker, and he couldn't bear to look at it.

"Alright, stop teasing your Second Brother." Du Ruo used serving chopsticks to put the fish head into Jiang Cheng's bowl: "A-Zhan reads and uses his eyes, so eating snake gall is best; you are different—you study medicine and use your brain, so eating fish brains is best, just right to nourish the brain with the shape of the brain."

Actually, it didn't do much good; fish only have a seven-second memory, and their brains aren't as good as his.

Of course, that husky didn't know that and really thought his sister-in-law wanted to nourish his brain, so he happily ate the fish head clean.

Jiang Zhan knew he couldn't escape, closed his eyes, and threw the snake gall into his mouth.

He didn't dare to chew and swallowed it directly.

Fortunately, it wasn't as hard to accept as he had imagined.

But mentioning reading, Jiang Zhan remembered one thing: "Sister-in-law, the Imperial Examination is coming soon; I want to return to the academy as soon as possible to prepare."