The smoke rose gently, enveloping the entire village in a soft haze. It was a tranquil morning in the mountain village.

Dragon Mountain, Shuangpai Village.

The village was small, scattered with about a hundred households, and I lived here.

My name is He Yiming. My parents gave me this name with the hope that I would achieve something remarkable when I grew up. In two months, I would turn fourteen. I was a bit eccentric, with a sharp mind, boldness, and keen calculation skills. The fire dragon fireworks display at the lantern festival was my idea, inspired by the sky lanterns described in textbooks.

I also had an older brother, He Tiezhu, who was two years older than me. He was sixteen this year and had been learning boxing from our neighbor, Uncle Li, since childhood. He had a strong physique, could climb any tree and jump over any wall, and was optimistic, cheerful, and always ready to help. As for us brothers, despite our young age, we were well-known throughout the village.

According to the neighbors' evaluation of us brothers: both of us had great courage and were curious about everything. Last year's sensational "Ghost Claw" incident in the village was solved by us brothers.

So, what was the "Ghost Claw" incident about? Well, in the village, there was a legend: if someone went to the outhouse at midnight, a pale hand would reach out from the pit and drag the person inside. As a result, people decisively abandoned the trick of scaring children with stories about a tiger that caught disobedient children outside at night and treated this legend as just another ghost story to frighten children.

However, someone did die in the outhouse that day.

I still remember that it was a clear morning in October last year when a scream suddenly came from the Li family, followed by the wailing of Li's wife. When my brother and I rushed over, many people had already gathered around. There was a corpse on the ground, covered in feces. It was obvious that this was Li Erpang, Li's wife's youngest son. Li's wife was sitting on the ground, holding the child, crying bitterly, and Li was staring at the child with tears in his eyes. People were speculating that the child had encountered the "Ghost Claw."

Li Erpang was my neighbor and a good friend. It was hard for me to believe that my playmate from yesterday was gone today. People tried to comfort Li's wife and washed the child's body clean before putting him in the west wing. Then everyone went into the main room to ask Li what had happened.

Li wiped away his tears and said, "He was fine before going to bed last night, but when he got up this morning and went to the outhouse... he must have encountered something when he went to the outhouse last night..."

The idea that the "Ghost Claw" had killed someone was something my brother simply couldn't believe. But the claw marks on Li Erpang's thigh plunged the people around into a panic about the "Ghost Claw."

While the people inside the house were consoling the family of the deceased and discussing the "Ghost Claw" incident, I came out of the house and went to the outhouse to see what was going on.

The Li family's outhouse was in the southwest corner of the courtyard, surrounded by a brick wall on the outside, with some indentations due to its age. Inside the outhouse, like in any other household, there was a large pit dug in the ground, with two wooden boards on top and a gap in the middle for convenience. When the feces were ready, they would be flushed out and used as fertilizer in the fields. Beside the pit, near the door, was a small iron bucket containing some charcoal and unburnt twigs. It was obvious that Li Erpang had been afraid of the dark last night, so he had lit a fire for light. Behind the pit was a wall piled with old wood and straw. The wall faced west, towards Uncle Li's yard, and beyond that was our own house.

At this moment, Uncle Li also walked over with a cane and said to me in a slow voice, "Yiming, what are you looking at?"

Seeing Uncle Li coming over, I hurriedly stepped forward to help, "Uncle Li, you came too? Ah, Erpang was my good friend. I didn't expect him to die so miserably. Do you really think he encountered the 'Ghost Claw'?"

"Oh, I'm not sure," Uncle Li said, slowly looking over the situation in the outhouse. Finally, his gaze fell on the iron bucket, and he said to me, "Which month was Li Erpang born in?"

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"Eighth day of the twelfth month. Why do you ask, Uncle Li?" my brother replied.

"Oh, just asking casually," Uncle Li said to me again, "By the way, tomorrow you and your

brother come to my place to help me dig a cabbage cellar. Winter is coming, and it's time to store some cabbage."

"Okay!" I answered, thinking to myself, "People have died, and he's still thinking about a cabbage cellar. This old man is really interesting!"

"Hmm? What's that?" Uncle Li suddenly pointed with his hand.

Following Uncle Li's finger, I saw two dead mice in the pit. "Just a few dead mice. What's wrong with that?"

"It's not mice, look above the mice!" Uncle Li's voice raised a bit.

Above the mice was the wooden board, and... what was that? I also noticed that, due to the broken left wooden board, there was something moving underneath the mud beneath the wooden board.

I hurried closer to take a look.

"A snake... it's a snake tail!" I couldn't help but shout.

My brother rushed over at the sound. Others also came over when they heard the commotion. After explaining the situation to my brother, we both ignored the stench and my brother reached out and pinched the snake's tail that was barely outside with his fingers, and directly used his hands to dig it out. The snake was also frightened and kept trying to burrow in, but no matter how hard it struggled, it couldn't break free from my brother's fingers, which were like pliers.

Because the earth in the outhouse was very soft, the hole quickly widened. When the snake's body protruded a few inches, I used my other hand to grab it and pulled it out forcefully.

Wow, a black snake about a meter long was pulled out by me. I then lifted the snake by its tail and swung it around a few times, then slammed it onto another piece of wood and swung it a few more times before slamming it on the ground. This was my experience in catching snakes; once a snake was swung, its bones would dislocate, and then it could be swung again, and all the bones would scatter, making it unable to move even if it wanted to.

"Wild neck!" Those who recognized this snake around us shouted. Hearing the words "wild neck," my hand holding the snake trembled, and I immediately asked the people around me to stay away from me and swung the snake around again and again.

"Wild neck" was the largest poisonous snake in the area. A bite would be fatal immediately. This kind of snake usually had a length of less than one meter, was entirely black, and had a red dot around its neck. Because it always raised its head when crawling, it looked wild, so it got this name. It was now almost impossible to see this kind of snake. I had only heard my grandfather mention this local snake once, but I had never seen one before. I didn't expect to encounter one today, and it was such a big one. I was extremely nervous. I directly asked my brother to swing it a few more times. It wasn't until the snake stopped moving that I asked him to stop.

I looked at the dead mice in the pit and then at the snake and came to a conclusion that everyone agreed on: it was autumn, the season with the most snakes and mice, and this snake had come to catch mice last night. Li Erpang, who came to the outhouse, didn't notice this snake underneath because it was dark, got bitten, passed out, broke the wooden board, and fell down. The poison then took effect and caused his death. After the truth was revealed, everyone's panic about the "Ghost Claw" naturally disappeared.

The next day, a warning was posted on the village notice board: "Beware of snakes in autumn, especially in outhouses."

Since then, my brother and I became role models among the young people of the same age. Catching snakes barehanded, and even catching the terrifying "wild neck," still made my back cold when I thought about it now. I didn't know where I got the courage from at the time. If I had known in advance that it was a "wild neck," my brother and I probably wouldn't have gone up there.

Besides being bold and careful, being helpful also earned us brothers a good reputation among the villagers. Uncle Li was nearly eighty years old and had moved to the village ten years ago. He had no children and was a recipient of the government's aid. Since he lived next door to our house, we would always come over to help with big and small matters. At the same time, Uncle Li also taught us brothers some boxing, which made us come over to play whenever we had time.

The day after catching the "wild neck," my brother and I came to Uncle Li's house as promised to help him dig the cabbage cellar.

There were very few types of vegetables in the mountain village in winter. The most common vegetables were Chinese cabbage, radish, potato, and a few others. In the mountain village, Chinese cabbage was the main vegetable, and every household had to dig a cellar before winter to store Chinese cabbage. The so-called cabbage cellar was usually a large hole dug in the ground, about two to three meters square and over two meters deep, with a wooden frame on top and covered with plastic sheeting, followed by a layer of soil on top, which allowed for ventilation and insulation, making it the best way to store vegetables in winter.

We wasted no time and soon dug a two-meter-square hole about two meters deep in the southeast corner of the yard.

By now, I was already sweating profusely, so I asked, "Uncle Li, is this deep enough? You should be able to use it alone!"

"Dig a little deeper, and widen the bottom outwards. I want to buy more cabbage!" Uncle Li laughed and replied, "You've worked hard. Come up and have some water first. Hehe, young people are always so impatient!"

I was about to reply when I heard a loud "thump," and a large hole appeared in the southeast corner of the cabbage cellar. Then I heard my brother Tiezhu scream in surprise as he fell into the hole beneath his feet.