Around the end of May.
A light rain had just fallen in the mountains.
The sunlight was perfect.
The leaves, as if freshly washed, glistened green in the sun.
Beneath the bushes in the forest, a milky-white snake egg cracked open. A moment later, a small, greenish head emerged.
The little head blended in with the color of the surrounding bushes, and no one noticed that the snake egg here had hatched.
The green snake looked around, its inky eyes filled with confusion.
It clearly remembered being dead… How was it alive again?
"Huh? How did I die? Who was I?" The green snake shook its head, growing even more confused.
It felt that it had forgotten many things, but couldn't recall them no matter how hard it tried.
It only knew that it shouldn't be a snake, but a person.
Perhaps because it had just been born, its little brain wasn't suited for such thoughts, and it soon gave up.
At this moment, it only felt ravenously hungry and wanted to find something to eat quickly.
With that thought, it slithered away from its safe little nest.
The forest wasn't large, but it wasn't exactly safe either.
The little creature had just been born, and almost any animal in the forest could overpower it.
Although it was still naive, the laws of survival seemed to be etched into its DNA, so it naturally didn't dare to provoke animals larger than itself.
It searched around cautiously, hoping to see if it could find anything to eat.
If all else failed, it planned to eat some berries to fill its stomach.
To be honest, as it thought about eating raw meat and drinking blood, besides hunger, it also felt a sense of disgust... as if it wasn't supposed to live like that.
The little snake searched for a long time but couldn't even find a single frog.
It did spot a toad, but the toad was bigger than it was. It feared it had no chance in a fight, so it gave up.
It turned to look for berries instead.
Meat was hard to find, but berries were easy.
It found some before long.
But just as it had eaten two berries, it was seized by a pair of large hands.
"A snake that eats berries? Come with me! With your talent, you'll starve to death in this forest sooner or later."
The one who caught the little snake was a middle-aged man, dressed in patched cloth clothes, with a small bamboo cage hanging from his waist.
The middle-aged man's name was Li Er, a snake charmer from Huai County.
A while ago, the snake he used for his livelihood was stolen and made into snake soup. Having lost his partner, he had come to the forest specifically to find a new one.
Although he encountered many snakes on his way, they were all adults and very wild, so he didn't dare to catch them.
He was beginning to despair, but heaven always leaves a door open.
And just like that, on his way back, he came across this newly hatched little snake.
So he snatched it up, preparing to take it home.
Besides, this snake didn't look very bright. If left in the forest, it would likely die young…
Following him to perform would also be a way to survive.
"From now on, you'll be called Xiao Qing!"
The little snake struggled with all its might, but it was simply too small. It couldn't even beat a toad, let alone a human.
The little snake felt dejected. Was it going to die so soon after being born?
Before it could finish its silent complaint, it found itself thrown into a bamboo cage.
It was quite spacious inside, with only the one snake.
Xiao Qing resigned itself to its fate. It didn't know what sins it had committed in its past life to suffer such a calamity less than a day after being born in this one.
But the cage was shaking so much... it almost shook out the berries it had just eaten.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before Li Er arrived home.
The first thing he did after getting home was to give Xiao Qing an egg to eat.
A snake charmer's most important asset is his snake. If Xiao Qing starved to death, he would have to go back up the mountain to catch another one.
So, naturally, he had to take good care of it.
And by feeding it himself, it would grow closer to him.
That way, he wouldn't get bitten.
More than a month passed quickly, and Xiao Qing, having been well-fed, had grown quite a bit.
At the same time, her mind was no longer as muddled as it was at the beginning. She could understand what the snake charmer was saying, and she even vaguely recalled many memories from her past life.
She remembered… her surname seemed to be Su, but she had forgotten her full name.
So, she simply decided to call herself Su Qing.
In the days that followed, Su Qing's mind became even clearer, and she began to actively cooperate with the snake charmer's performances.
The snake charmer needed her help to earn money, and she couldn't be bothered to go out hunting. Following the snake charmer meant she had food and drink; it wasn't a bad way to live out a life.
And while performing all over the county town with the snake charmer, Su Qing gradually came to understand a little about this world.
Not much, but she knew that demons and immortals existed in this world, which seemed like the world of Liaozhai.
Later, Su Qing learned that the place she was in was called Shanbuzhou Jambudvipa.
Only then did she understand that she wasn't in a world like Liaozhai, but one like Journey to the West…
But Su Qing had little interest in these things. Although she wanted to cultivate immortality and become a great demon… to live forever, she was just an ordinary little snake now. She didn't even know how to cultivate, so how could she become a great demon?
In the end, she would probably just live out her life like any ordinary snake.
So, in the days that followed, she didn't think about it too much.
And so, she spent more than ten years with the snake charmer!
The snake charmer, who was already middle-aged back then, now had graying temples.
One morning, the snake charmer placed Su Qing in the back basket as usual, said a word to his family, and left with her on his back.
Su Qing had no premonition that this day would be any different from the usual routine…
She just felt that they were walking for a long time and thought they were heading to the market in the west of the city to perform.
So she didn't pay it much mind.
But when they finally stopped, she found that their surroundings were not the usual bustling market, but a forest.
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