Song of Adolescence

Chapter 257 Everything Has its Price

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After the Golden Cross moored near the shore, the two snake chiefs who were dressed all in black, brought the rest of the snake catches they’d recruited from the harbour to disembark first. They had all put on tight leather armors to protect themselves and wore black-coloured robes over the armor. On their face was a mask made of iron, so they were extremely well protected.

"Is the golden line snake that poisonous?" Lei Wujie didn’t understand.

Tang Lian nodded. "If you are bitten by a golden line snake, you’ll probably be able to live for another cup of tea[4]. The golden line snakes we saw when we were ashore were specially domesticated so most of its toxin had been neutralised. But, if an ordinary person was bitten by those, they would still lose consciousness right away."

Lei Wujie sighed. "Since it's so poisonous, why are we letting these people go out and take the risk. All that risk just to prepare a dose of medicine so that one person can… uh, so that he can…"

"People die for money, and birds die for food. The people already accepted their gold, and they are fully aware of the risks involved," Xiao Se interjected languidly, seeing that Lei Wujie could not continue.

"Is Lei-xiong saying that I’m one of those rich people who have zero benevolence?" Mu Chunfeng smiled. "For my own interests, I will not hesitate to pay for these people's lives."

After spending so many days together, Lei Wujie naturally understood Mu Chunfeng's character and knew that he was not that kind of person. But, after thinking further about it, he couldn’t deny the truth of the matter either. For a while, he didn’t know what else to say.

"But you saw how much gold I’m giving them? It’s money that they can’t earn even after more than ten years of fishing. With this gold, some fishermen who have been working for someone can now buy a fishing boat of their own. Some who have sons that are grown up but still single can finally afford to pay for an expensive dowry. They all know the risks involved, but they couldn’t wait to grab at a chance for this job. Do you know why?" Mu Chunfeng said lightly.

"Why?" Lei Wujie asked very cooperatively.

"Because everything has its price." At this moment, Mu Chunfeng suddenly became more like a noble son of the Qingzhou Mu family. "Our Mu family believes in this principle, so I came on this trip personally. Nobody can guarantee absolute safety when you’re on the open sea. So this is the price that we’ve paid!"

Xiao Se suddenly said, "Actually, I think you’re quite suitable to inherit the Mu family."

"It’s not important whether or not I inherit the Mu family. The important thing is to help my brother regain his springtime." Mu Chunfeng suddenly turned around and carried his medical case on his back. "Also, with me here, no one is allowed to die."

Xiao Se and the others immediately followed after him. The snake catchers had already dispersed on the island, but the scene on the island was different from what Lei Wujie had imagined. At first glance, this was a very ordinary island. Flowers and trees flourished all around while birds and other animals hummed in harmony. It was rather different from a snake island completely covered with golden line snakes that he’d imagined. Mu Chunfeng seemed to predict what he was going to ask. "Even if Golden Snake Island is an island with the most golden line snakes, they’re not all over the island. Naturally, it’ll take us some time to find them."

Four hours passed, and even after making several rounds around the island, they didn’t find a single golden line snake. So, they sat down under the shade to drink some water and rest. One of the snake chiefs in his black robe suddenly appeared next to them. "Young master."

Mu Chunfeng drank some water and asked, "How many?"

"Thirty," the snake chief replied.

"No one was injured?" Mu Chunfeng asked again.

"The snake-catching suit designed by the young master is really rigorous. No one has been injured yet. If there are any injuries, we will send a signal to inform the young master to go over," the snake head replied respectfully.

Mu Chunfeng smiled. "Carry on, then."

After the snake chief had left, Xiao Se asked, "How many golden line snakes do you intend to catch this time?"

"If it’s only to make that medicine, of course I would only need a few golden line snakes. But, to make up for the cost of this trip, I would need at least two hundred," Mu Chunfeng said mildly.

Tang Lian was shocked. "Two hundred golden line snakes? If you extract all the venom from two hundred golden line snakes, you can poison a whole city to death."

"We’re not interested in making poisons, but the snake gall and snake venom of the golden line snakes are all valuable materials. To enter the open sea, we had to stuff quite a lot of money into the government officials’ pockets. The Mu family are not in the business of making losses, so we recruited so many snake catchers for this trip partly because of this reason," Mu Chunfeng said.

Xiao Se shook his head. "The current progress is too slow. I can't wait that long."

Mu Chunfeng glanced at Xiao Se, and naturally understood what he meant. "Indeed, based on my medical skills, you truly can’t wait that long. I can lend you that boat and you can travel straight to the east from here. Our agreement still stands."

"No." Xiao Se shook his head. "Like you just said, everything has its price."

Mu Chunfeng chuckled and drank another mouthful of water, declining to comment.

"Da-shixiong, time to pay our boat fare." Xiao Se also drank a mouthful of water.

Tang Lian nodded, took out a bag of powder from his robes and shook it vigorously. The powder scattered in a circle around their group, and the smell was very pungent. Sikong Qianluo coughed while she complained, "Da-shixiong, what did you throw out? I’m going to choke to death!"

Lei Wujie, who was familiar with explosives, recognized it immediately. "Sulfur?"

Tang Lian immediately took out a stick of incense from his robes, leaned over and inserted the stick of incense into the soil. With a gentle twist of his hand, he ignited the stick of incense. There was the faint scent of incense mingled with a strange rancid smell, and the few of them sitting together couldn’t help but frown.

"Now what is this?" Sikong Qianluo asked.

Tang Lian stood up. "This is rot incense. No venomous creatures can resist its smell." His words were absolute, but they were absolutely convincing at the same time. Because when it came to the use of poisons, except for the well-established Wen Clan, Tang Clan were the most adept.

After a while, they were surrounded by the sounds of hissing and sliding. Everyone looked around hurriedly and saw that the grass around them was full of long golden-coloured snakes. Even the branches of the trees were covered with long snakes, as they curled their bodies and spat out their tongues. They seemed to be watching the people but also afraid of that ring of sulfur and didn’t dare to advance further.

"How many of Tang Clan’s hidden weapons do you have on you?" Xiao Se asked.

Tang Lian shrugged. "Never counted them before, but I have quite a few."

"Use them all up before we return to Beili. You could consider that a proper closure too," Xiao Se said faintly.

Tang Lian nodded. With a quick move, he walked out of that circle. His movement was incredibly fast as he shifted back and forth and silver light flashed continuously between his fingers. One by one, the leaping golden line snakes fell onto the ground just as quickly.

Lei Wujie picked up his sword and got ready to step out but Xiao Se stopped him. "Once you draw your sword, all the golden line snakes will be chopped into pieces by one lazy move. People want to harvest the snake galls, not stew snake meat."

Lei Wujie raised his eyebrows. "How about having snake soup for dinner tonight?"

Sikong Qianluo immediately retorted with a vomiting expression.

After about half of the rot incense had burnt, Tang Lian returned to where the rest were. He leaned over and pinched the incense to extinguish it before he remarked mildly, "That’s enough. Get some people to gather them up."

Xiao Se nodded. Then, together with Lei Wujie and Sikong Qianluo, they casually followed Tang Lian back to the boat. Looking at their backs, Mu Chunfeng suddenly thought of something the vulgar vendors on the streets of Qingzhou would always use to curse at the nobles in private.

"Bloody fucking awesome[5]."

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