As the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked along, they failed to notice a slippery little snake emerging from the bushes.
The snake, silently flicking its forked tongue, slithered up to their feet.
It first coiled around Xia Aiguo's wife.
"What is that!?" Initially, Xia Aiguo's wife didn't take it seriously, but as she lowered her head and saw the small snake's large, copper bell-like eyes, she first froze, then let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
"Ah ah ah! Mom! There's a snake! A snake!"
She leapt up two meters high, trying to shake the snake off her leg. Though she succeeded in getting rid of the snake, she slipped and fell back into a shallow ditch.
The ditch wasn't deep, but was particularly dirty, with dark, thick water that emitted a nauseating stench.
"Mom! Help me!" Xia Aiguo's wife, who had a natural fear of water, desperately closed her eyes, thrashing blindly in the ditch, her legs too weak to climb out no matter how hard she tried.
