Closer to My True Form Every Day

Qian Feiyang suspected that he had heard wrong.

You want me to hand you sunglasses at this critical time?!! Did you make a mistake in your excitement?

When Feng Yi saw that people that had been fishing in other places were heading this way, and that security guards wearing conspicuous overalls were running over, he urged, “Hurry! Give me the sunglasses in the bag! They’re in the black glasses case!”

After confirming that he had heard correctly, Qian Feiyang didn’t have time to think too much and handed over the sunglasses in the glasses case.

Feng Yi took the sunglasses with his free hand and put them on, covering his eyes. He was currently wearing casual clothes with long sleeves and pants, sunglasses, a mask, and a fisherman’s hat. No matter what high-resolution photos were taken, they wouldn’t be able to see his face.

As soon as Feng Yi put on the sunglasses, someone ran over, faster than the security personnel. Seeing the situation on Feng Yi’s side, the guy said, “Goddamn”, then he took out his phone and took a quick picture. He even boldly stood next to Feng Yi and skillfully found a good angle to make sure that the snake in Feng Yi’s hand and himself could appear in the same shot.

Qian Feiyang: “…”

He had an idea why Feng Yi was wearing sunglasses at this time. He thought the guy was here to help, but he didn’t expect the other party to rush over to take a photo!

The security personnel who rushed over pulled the person taking the picture away, “That’s a poisonous snake! It’s very dangerous! Get back! Do you want to die!!”

They could stop one, but not a group.

There were already many people fishing on weekends. Although the fishing area was large, the news spread quite quickly.

A group of people who had rushed over first:

“Wow! What a big snake!”

“How rare! To be able to see such a big poisonous snake while fishing!”

“Hold on tight, young man! I’ve already called the police!” An old man raised his voice and shouted at Feng Yi. At the same time, he raised his phone and crazily took pictures of Feng Yi.

A younger fisherman was quicker and more nimble. While he was shooting videos, he shouted, “Oh my God, it’s so scary!”

Probably because he was too far away to capture the details, he was dissatisfied. Although his face was pale with fear and his legs were shaking, he quickly cut into the inner circle, took another step closer to Feng Yi, and took a quick photo while the security guards blocked other people. Then he retreated far away and started browsing Moments and social platforms. Some people found it strange, some came to watch the excitement, and some took photos purely to sell to independent and paid media accounts.

Wu Ji couldn’t care about being scared at this time, and helped Qian Feiyang block off people, muttering, “Are these people willing to risk their lives just to take pictures?

Wu Ji, who was afraid of snakes, couldn’t understand the people’s excitement.

After two decades of climate anomalies, a large number of species had become extinct. Many once common animals had become rare, and the number of snakes had been greatly reduced. Wu Ji had gone fishing so many times, but this was the first time he had encountered a snake. As a child, he had accidentally stepped on a snake when his school had organized a trip to the nature reserve for a science seminar. Other times, the only way to see a snake was to go to the exhibition hall or the corresponding snake sanctuary. Therefore, it was indeed difficult for people who went out fishing now to encounter snakes. This time, as soon as they heard that there was a snake, everyone who was curious rushed over.

As the crowd gathered, someone suddenly shouted, “It’s got a white tail! Fuck me, it’s a little green dragon, an ironhead viper¹Also called the Mangshan Pit Viper or little green dragon by local Chinese folk! Weren’t they supposed to be extinct in the wild long ago?”

“Little green dragon? Is there such a snake?”

Someone immediately searched on the phone, and then excitedly shouted at Feng Yi, “Don’t strangle it to death! This snake was a special-level protected animal before the strictest conservation law came out!!!”

Wow——

The crowd exploded again. The people who had planned to leave after taking pictures and watching the excitement for a while became excited again and immediately contacted their family and friends nearby.

“Hurry! Take a close look at the special-level protected animal! You can’t even see it normally!”

At another corner of the fishing area.

Because it was too far away, they couldn’t hear the commotion over there at all. But as they received messages on their phones one after the other, they couldn’t wait any longer.

“Hurry up, let’s go over and take a look, I heard that a little green dragon has appeared over there!”

“Dragon? Is there really a dragon?”

“No, it’s just a very scary-looking venomous snake! But it is said to be a National Treasure-level protected animal now, and it was supposed to be extinct in the wild.”

Those who heard the news focused all their attention on “Little Green Dragon” and “National Treasure-level Protected Animal”. As for the keyword “venomous snake”…

It didn’t matter if it was a poisonous snake or not! Anyway, it had already been caught, so it was not a threat. No matter how poisonous the snake was, it couldn’t stop people from being overly curious and watching the excitement.

One person even threw his fishing rod into the lake and didn’t care about fishing. He got up and ran to the place where the incident happened. As he ran, he took out his cell phone, pulled up the camera to adjust the angle, and raised his hands to adjust his hairstyle. He ran all the way to the discovery site at a speed he couldn’t even show in the physical fitness test. With a twist, he pushed through the two onlookers in front of him and squeezed into the inner circle.

There was no high ground in this area, and the slightly higher positions were already occupied by people.

…

Wu Ji’s parents were picking vegetables in the farm’s vegetable garden.

Papa Wu was absent-minded; his mind having already flown to the fishing area. He was supposed to go fishing after a break, but Mama Wu stopped him and pulled him over to pick vegetables and fruits.

“Hey, don’t pick too much. We’ll pick some more before returning home tomorrow as it’s still fresh,” Papa Wu said.

“No, didn’t you see how many people there are on the weekend! If we’re too slow, the good ones will be taken away!”

As they spoke, the siren of a fire truck sounded. Visitors to the vegetable garden looked over.

“What happened?”

“Did someone start a fire illegally? Not long ago it was reported that a tourist secretly smoked in the non-smoking area and caused a fire.”

“Oh, people nowadays!”

Since it wasn’t an uncommon sight, everyone didn’t pay it any mind and planned to continue picking vegetables. Before they could start, they heard the police siren.

“Two more police cars passed by, did something really happen?”

“I didn’t see an ambulance, so it shouldn’t be serious.”

Before the person could finish speaking, an ambulance rushed past. Now the tourists were really not in the mood to pick vegetables.

“Something must have happened!”

“What’s that place over there? They’re all driving there.”

“Over there… It’s the fishing area, right? I remember that the fishing areas of the farmhouse are all over there,” someone said.

Papa and Mama Wu’s hearts skipped a beat, and they looked at each other. Papa Wu took out his phone to call Wu Ji, and it took a while for the other side to answer.

“Where are you!” Father Wu listened to the loud voices on the phone, something about a dragon and a snake, he couldn’t hear clearly.

“The situation here is a bit complicated, wait a moment.”

Wu Ji hung up the phone and quickly sent a request for a video call.

When Wu Ji answered the phone just now, Papa and Mama Wu’s anxious hearts calmed down, but when they saw the situation on the other side clearly through the video call, their hearts almost jumped out of their throats.

Wu Ji hurriedly said, “Don’t worry, the firefighters are already here. We’ll come back later, just wait in the room.”

After the call ended, the two were still worried.

A tourist who was picking vegetables nearby came over and asked them if they knew what had happened.

“They found a snake in the fishing area, a big poisonous one!” Father Wu said absent-mindedly.

The tourist exclaimed after hearing this and was questioned by someone else when he went back.

“A big poisonous snake was found in the fishing area! I wonder if anyone has been bitten.”

The friend who got the news told others. Then, the news spread.

“They found a big poisonous snake over there in the fishing area. I heard it bit someone!”

“Woah! There’s actually a poisonous snake in the fishing area! Who was so unlucky to be bitten? It must be very serious!”

“Oh my God! I heard that someone was bitten by a poisonous snake in the fishing area! Did you see the ambulance just now? It was called for that person!”

“Oh my, how sad that someone was bitten by a poisonous snake in the fishing area. A student of my friend’s relative was at the scene and said that the person was carried into the ambulance!”

The exaggerated rumors showed no signs of slowing down even after the live video and photos were posted. Instead, numerous versions were adapted and continued to spread.

At the same time, Feng Yi, who was rumored to have been “carried into the ambulance”, still maintained the posture of holding the snake with a blank face, acting as an errand boy. He had already greeted those who “risked their lives to take pictures” countless times in his heart.

Feng Yi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the firefighters arrive and rush to separate the crowd of onlookers.

The scenic area was large. There was also a fire station nearby, and seven firefighters were the first to arrive at the scene.

Originally, Feng Yi thought that since the firefighters had arrived, he was no longer needed. However, when the firefighters came to check it out, they realized that they needed a professional. They weren’t good at catching snakes, and those in the team who were good at it weren’t here today.

If Feng Yi couldn’t keep hold of it or no one could restrain the snake, they would definitely intervene directly. Human life came first. But now, Feng Yi was holding the snake so firmly. At first glance, his technique seemed much more professional than theirs. Even if they wore gloves, they might not be as steady as Feng Yi’s bare hands.

The current protection level of the white-tailed ironhead viper was too high. Perhaps, this was the only one left in the wild, so it was of great importance. If anything happened to it, public opinion would crush them to death. That was why the firefighters who came here didn’t know how to handle the situation. If it was a cauliflower snake, water snake, or other poisonous snake with a larger population, they wouldn’t be afraid, but this one…

It was tricky!

“Can you hold on?” a firefighter asked.

Feng Yi bit the bullet. “Yes.”

“Okay, just keep holding it like this. The professional handler will be here soon to take over. Don’t be afraid, don’t be too stressed! We have already prepared the antivenom, don’t be afraid!”

While speaking, the police cars and the ambulance also arrived.

The police maintained order at the scene to prevent others from frightening the snake and adding to Feng Yi’s burden.

As for the snake that Feng Yi was holding, it seemed to be stunned, only the tail hanging on the ground moved slightly from time to time.

“Is this snake about to be strangled to death?” said a fisherman who didn’t mind making the situation worse.

“I heard that second-level protected animals can warrant a punishment. This kind of special-level… Hey, what if that guy really strangles it to death? He didn’t do it on purpose though.”

The firemen looked at each other and went over to tell Feng Yi that it was better for them to take over while the snake was still alive. If Feng Yi really strangled the snake to death, he would probably be overwhelmed by public opinion.

Feng Yi gestured to the firemen. “It’s okay, the snake is still alive. I’ll wait for the professional to come and then pass it on.”

A shopping street in Mount Yue Scenic Area.

The shopping crowd also received true and false news, but most people had a stronger desire to shop, and they didn’t care about the fishing area of the farmhouse. In their opinion, so many things happened every day. If they saw it, they’d reflect on it for a while, but that was it. They wouldn’t delve too deeply into it.

Two young girls came out of a store with large and small bags and wanted to find a place to eat. They turned on their phones to search for nearby places with good reviews and found that they had a new message. They looked at it casually.

“I heard that something happened to a farmhouse over there!” One of them pointed in the direction.

“Who knows if the photo is real. The rumors are too exaggerated. Just wait until the rumors are disproved.” The other girl said indifferently, “Let’s keep looking for food…”

While they were talking, they heard something and looked up at the sky. Two helicopters flew over, heading towards the farmhouse they had just mentioned.

• 1Also called the Mangshan Pit Viper or little green dragon by local Chinese folk