However, Qi Xingzhou was not a person without self-restraint. He frowned slightly, held himself back, and listened carefully to Jiang Ning’s words before responding in a similarly low voice, "Yes."
Having caught so many criminals with Jiang Ning, even if Jiang Ning had not said anything, Qi Xingzhou could roughly guess what Jiang Ning was thinking.
He sensed for a moment, then spoke in a breathy voice not much louder than he used to speak to Jiang Ning, "There are more than twenty, eight are venomous, and the rest are non-venomous."
"Let the venomous ones move to other areas. Bring a few non-venomous ones to scare them," Jiang Ning commanded.
These two were accomplices, and also the targets of Jiang Ning and Qi Xingzhou’s mission.
Jiang Ning just wanted to catch them off guard, to prevent them from having any chance to tip each other off, not to take their lives.
What punishments Hei Mazi and Skinny Wang would face in the future was naturally for the law to decide.
Qi Xingzhou nodded, and the two crouched behind the bushes to watch quietly.
After Hei Mazi turned off his cell phone, in just a short while, he couldn’t resist and started playing with it again.
Though the signal on the mountain was poor, he could still browse TikTok with some patience.
He scrolled through a few videos, and the page quickly froze again.
Hei Mazi frowned, gazing at his cell phone full of grievance, always on the verge of throwing it away in frustration.
Just then, a slight noise came from above, as if something was trying to crawl over his head.
Hei Mazi instinctively reached up to swat it, and a black snake, no thicker than a pencil, was suddenly knocked off the tree trunk beside him and fell into the dark brown dead leaves, twisting continuously.
Hei Mazi was startled, and after realizing what it was, he immediately got up from the ground, "Fuck! A snake! Skinny Wang! There’s a snake in the tree!"
"What, what?" Skinny Wang was also startled by Hei Mazi’s sudden sharp cry. He shuddered, nearly falling from the tree.
"You come down quickly!"
"Snake! There’s a snake in this tree!"
Hei Mazi shouted, picking up a stone next to him to smash the little snake.
But that little snake was quite cunning. It had only come out to distract Hei Mazi, and seeing Hei Mazi picking up a rock to hit it, the snake twisted its agile little body and quickly slipped into the dead leaves. Hiding its form with the leaves, it slithered away in another direction, soon disappearing from Hei Mazi’s view.
Hei Mazi threw the rock several times without any sign of the snake, then picked up a branch from next to him and poked around, only to find dead leaves and soil, no trace of the little snake.
Skinny Wang sat in the tree without coming down, but he looked down and saw Hei Mazi’s movements.
"It’s just a little snake," Skinny Wang said.
He grew up in the countryside, where his family was poor. As a kid, Skinny Wang even caught snakes to roast and eat.
He was not afraid at all.
This tree had the widest view, and Skinny Wang was somewhat reluctant to leave it.
Upon hearing Skinny Wang’s words, Hei Mazi almost ran out of breath.
That snake was so small, obviously just a few days out of the cave.
If one snake appeared, there would definitely be its siblings, or larger snakes, nearby.
Just the thought made Hei Mazi’s spine tingle.
He may be a man, but he was terrified of snakes!
"You come down quickly! Check around for other snakes!" Hei Mazi yelled, knowing Skinny Wang wasn’t afraid of snakes. He might have been mistaken, but right after he said this, he felt like he heard rustling sounds all around him, similar to that of crawling creatures.
He turned his head to look around and suddenly made eye contact with a pair of small black bead-like eyes two meters away.
A black snake stood quietly beneath a small eucalyptus tree, with its sleek diamond-shaped head raised, staring at him, calm and polite.
Hei Mazi’s soul nearly flew out of his body, and he quickly looked to Skinny Wang for help:
"Skinny Wang, come down quickly! Stop watching!"
Hei Mazi was so scared that he was shaking all over, his eyes fixed on the snake.
What made him even more desperate was that he saw the small snake he had just tried to kill, but missed, right next to the big one! And there wasn’t just one!
Several small snakes played around the big one. They headed towards Hei Mazi, whether they heard his movements or were just curious about this creature with hands and feet.
The big snake that had been still moved at the sight, flicking its tongue as it slowly followed the little ones.
Upon seeing this, Hei Mazi was so frightened that he dropped his phone.
"My god! This is terrifying!"
Hei Mazi didn’t bother to pick up his phone. After retreating a couple of steps, he turned and ran.
With a snake that thick, a bite would surely end his life, and perhaps the small snake was even seeking revenge. Not running would be foolish!
"Hey! Don’t run." Skinny Wang called out upon seeing Hei Mazi escape, and quickly jumped down from the tree.
It’s just a snake. Why not just kill it?
Skinny Wang thought . But when he turned his head, he found himself face to face with a whole family of snakes.
From the branch above, he hadn’t seen clearly. It wasn’t just one snake, it was a nest!
However, Skinny Wang soon calmed down again.
He recognized that the snakes in front of him were nonvenomous. If he caught them, he could make a nice dish.
He held his breath, hung his binoculars to the side, and prepared to catch the snakes.
To him, catching snakes was a matter of a moment and not a big deal.
Moreover, no normal person would imagine that someone was behind the snakes, deliberately attracting their attention.
Jiang Ning, who had been lying in ambush, had prowled closer the moment Hei Mazi ran away.
It seemed that Hei Mazi had run far away, as not even his footsteps could be heard anymore.
The mountain was extremely quiet. As Skinny Wang eyed the snake family before him, planning to make his move when they came closer, he suddenly sensed an unusual movement behind him.
He immediately turned around.
A flat-bottomed pan came crashing down, hitting Skinny Wang squarely on the forehead.
In that blow, Jiang Ning showed no mercy.
The loud clang resonated in the silent woods, almost making one’s teeth ache.
Skinny Wang was like a fish stunned and floating to the surface of the water; his eyes rolled back, his body went limp, and he collapsed.
A few seconds later, a crisp sound of skull-knocking came from the slope not far away.
Qi Xingzhou, who had taken a different path from Jiang Ning, had also knocked out Hei Mazi.
Seeing his mission accomplished, the big snake gave Jiang Ning a polite nod of its head, then, with a flick of its tail, calmly led its young away.