Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

When He Yuzhu heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up and he smiled and said, "Hey, you are the one who can think of this. Then I will buy some purified water as a backup. I can't always rely on well water to be enough."

The two smiled at each other, and both felt a little comforted. Li Xiangqian suddenly thought of his previous inexplicable feeling of uneasiness, so he took the opportunity to ask in a low voice: "Yuzhu, have you felt anything wrong recently? I always feel that there is something strange in the ground these days, and I have encountered snakes more than once. It always feels weird."

Hearing this, He Yuzhu's expression darkened. He moved closer mysteriously and whispered, "Xiang Qian, to be honest, I saw a snake in my field a few days ago. It was not an ordinary grass snake. It looked a bit scary. But I didn't dare tell anyone, for fear that others would think I was just nervous."

Li Xiangqian was stunned, and the fear in his heart surged up again. His eyes flickered slightly, and he whispered: "It seems that I am not the only one who encountered this. I really don't know where this snake came from."

He Yuzhu frowned, his face a little serious, and whispered: "Do you think it's a bad omen? I don't believe in these weird things, but I've heard that there have been a lot of things happening in the fields around us recently. Even Aunt Zhang's vegetable garden was destroyed by rats, causing her to go to the market every day to buy vegetables."

Li Xiangqian pondered in his heart, and it seemed that He Yuzhu, who never believed in evil, also began to wonder. This situation made him even more uneasy, and he always felt that his guess was not groundless. He sighed softly and said slowly: "This snake is annoying, but we farmers can only deal with it as it comes. No matter what, we have to be careful."

He Yuzhu nodded, and as if remembering something, he patted his head and said, "Oh, by the way, I heard from Uncle Zhang that there is a trick at the east end of the village. You can sprinkle pine ash on the ground, and the snakes will not dare to approach. You can try this, maybe it will work."

After listening to this, Li Xiangqian silently memorized this method in his heart, nodded slightly and said: "Then I will give it a try. It would be useless if I don't try it anyway. One more method may reduce some trouble."

The two chatted for a while until the sun gradually set, and then they went their separate ways. Li Xiangqian returned home, looking at the purified water piled up in the corner, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought: "If I stockpile more water, it will seem that I am a little too nervous, but I just can't let it go. I always feel that something bad is slowly approaching."

As he was thinking, he picked up a bottle of purified water and poured it into the watering can, preparing to try watering the ground with purified water tomorrow to see if it would make a difference. Just as he packed up everything and prepared to rest, he suddenly heard a slight sound outside the house, as if something was moving in the bushes.

Li Xiangqian's heart tightened, and his hand stopped moving. He approached the window and looked outside for a while, but found nothing. He took a deep breath and told himself silently, "Maybe it's just a cat or a mouse. Don't scare yourself."

Li Xiangqian stood by the window, looking out quietly. In the weeds at the corner of the yard, there seemed to be a flash of strange light, which made his heart beat faster for no reason. He held his breath, his pupils slightly dilated, and his eyes were fixed on the faint light, but the light was only for a moment and disappeared in the blink of an eye. The air seemed to become heavy and oppressive, making it difficult for him to breathe.

"Something is wrong..." Li Xiangqian muttered to himself, his eyes gradually becoming blurry, and a few uneasy images inexplicably appeared in his mind. The strange things that happened in recent days, the appearance of the snake, the withering of the land, and the "omen" that he seemed to have heard before all emerged one by one, interweaving into an invisible web in his mind, getting tighter and tighter, making his fear and uneasiness more intense. As if shrouded in fog, his vision gradually blurred, as if he had lost his clear boundaries at this moment.

At this moment, there were a few slight rustling sounds outside the house, as if something was moving in the grass. Li Xiangqian unconsciously held his breath and subconsciously narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to see clearly what was hidden in the grass through his blurred vision. He suddenly felt an inexplicable tension in his heart, accompanied by an inexplicable sense of fear, as if a pair of cold eyes were watching him in the dark, making him shudder.

He stretched out his hand and rubbed his eyes, trying to dispel the blurriness in front of his eyes, but the doubts in his heart did not diminish at all. Slowly, he moved closer to the window, and his eyes carefully scanned every corner of the yard through the thick glass window. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and it seemed that every sound carried some deep meaning, as if suggesting that some unknown danger was approaching.

"It might be a wild cat, it's no big deal..." Li Xiangqian whispered to himself, trying to calm himself down. However, his fingers were clenched into fists, and his palms were full of cold sweat, which clearly told him that his anxiety at the moment was not without reason.

"Could it be... that snake is back again?" This thought flashed through his mind, and his heart sank. Thinking of those cold snake eyes and the omnipresent shadow, a chill rose deep in his heart, as if those eyes were lurking around, waiting for the right moment to suddenly appear and attack.

"Li Xiangqian, you are scaring yourself. Snakes can't always come after you!" He took a deep breath and gently patted his cheeks, trying to sober himself up. But when he slowly turned his head and looked out the window again, his vision became blurred again, as if the faint light was becoming more and more dazzling in his mind.

At this moment, a familiar voice came from outside the window, calling his name with some urgency and concern: "Xiang Qian! Are you home? Come out and see!"

When Li Xiangqian heard the voice, he immediately perked up and hurried out of the house. As soon as he went out, he saw his neighbor He Yuzhu standing at the door, looking anxious and much paler than usual.

"Yuzhu, what's wrong?" He tried to make his tone sound calmer, but the doubts in his heart became deeper and deeper. He could see that He Yuzhu seemed to have encountered something difficult, and there was an inexplicable anxiety on his face, as if something big had happened.

When He Yuzhu saw him, he said anxiously, "Xiang Qian, come with me! I just found some strange traces in the field. They seem to be left by a snake. They extend from my field to the direction of your field!"

Li Xiangqian's heart suddenly skipped a beat. Although he was mentally prepared, he still felt extremely nervous and uneasy when he heard that traces of a snake appeared in his and He Yuzhu's land.

"The snake...how big is it? Did you see it clearly?" He tried to stay calm, but his voice trembled slightly unconsciously.