There was a man named Xiao Xiaoxiao in Huangshawo Village, who was in his forties, honest and kind, and very popular. Xiao Xiaoxiao was kind-hearted, and looked down the aisle, afraid that he would trample the ants to death. When he was a child, he especially liked meat, pork, mutton, and beef, but suddenly he stopped eating any meat.

The reason why Xiao Xiaoxiao didn't eat meat sounded ridiculous. That year, during the Chinese New Year, his family killed pigs, and it was his father killed the pigs. The white knife went into the red knife, and the pig screamed desperately, and tears came out of his eyes. Xiao Xiaoxiao looked at it and felt very uncomfortable. He had no appetite for the fragrant pork on the table, and his mind was full of the pig's whining voice and tears. From then on, Xiaoxiao was a vegetarian and did not eat meat.

Since he was young, he had never killed a chicken, duck or goose, nor had he hurt a rabbit, dog or cat. But Xiao Xiaoxiao's special hobby was smoking dry cigarettes, bag after bag, quite frequently. Anyway, they were all homegrown, and it didn't matter if they smoked more or less.

Xiao Xiaoxiao has a piece of land on the western hillside. The western hillside is divided into two pieces, one belonging to the beam and the other belonging to the beam. In fact, the top of the beam and the bottom of the beam are only a small matter of the slope. When the land is divided, the lot is drawn, and there is flat land and hillside land, and everyone wants to grab the flat land. Xiao Xiaoxiao accidentally grabbed the land on the western hillside, and it was on the beam. The beam was grabbed by Zhao Mingrui. However, the ancestral grave of the old Zhao family is on the beam. Xiao Xiaoxiao proposed to change the land with Zhao Mingrui. Zhao Mingrui shook his head and said, "I won't change it. At least I will take two steps less to plant the land. Besides, how can the land under the beam be fertile on the beam?" Zhao Mingrui planted all the ground with apple trees, which were green and had grown thick in two or three years. Xiao Xiaoxiao underestimated Zhao Mingrui's planting of apple trees, so he also planted apple trees on the beam. The apple trees in both families are longer than the strength. The difference is that Xiao Xiaoxiao also planted a little corn and grain under the apple tree, and the fruit trees were idle when they were idle.

That spring, the seedlings were already half a foot high, and Guo Dagang, an old "Five Guarantees" in Huangshawo Village, had lung cancer and was living in the township health center just waiting to take his last breath. The village party secretary hurriedly prepared for Guo Dagang's funeral and sent a few people to the side of the road at the foot of Xishan to find a suitable tree to lay down for Guo Dagang to make a coffin. Zhao Mingrui was a relative of the village party secretary, and the party secretary would think of him if there was any good deed. For the matter of putting trees as coffins, the village had to pay wages, so Zhao Mingrui naturally had a share. Zhao Mingrui led the three people to the side of the road for a long time, and they found a tall and straight poplar tree. The four of them discussed putting down the poplar tree. The two of them tied ropes between the poplar trees and dragged them. The two of them started sawing the tree with saws.

The four of them looked up and found a magpie nest built on the branch of a poplar tree. They couldn't blame the magpies for being anxious, they went through a lot of hardships to build this nest. At this time, Xiao Xiaoxiao happened to be going to the field to weed and pass by. When he saw the magpie's bleak cry, he was moved with pity and said to Zhao Mingrui, "Why did you only like this tree? It can't be replaced with something else? How easy is it for a magpie to build a nest?" Zhao Mingrui smiled and said, "You pity it, so you can go up the tree and take the nest down and send it to another tree."

Xiao Xiaoxiao looked up at the tall poplar tree and took a breath of cold air. However, Xiao Xiaoxiao was a bit stubborn. He couldn't stand Zhao Mingrui's teasing tone, so he spat two mouthfuls of saliva into the palm of his hand, rubbed it a few times, and went up to half of the waist of the tree. Xiao Xiaoxiao looked down and was a little dizzy. He turned his heart and continued to climb. When he reached the branch of the magpie's nest, he looked into the nest and was shocked: there were clearly four fleshy little magpies in the nest that had just grown light fluff. What surprised Xiao Xiaoxiao even more was that the four little magpies were surrounded by a yellow flower snake. Xiao Xiaoxiao was afraid of everything, but not afraid of snakes. As long as he saw a snake, the snake would lie there motionless. According to the old man, the snake was most afraid of smoking oil. Xiao Xiaoxiao smelled smoke all over her body. When the snake saw him, it naturally couldn't move.

Xiao Xiaoxiao carefully brought down the magpie's nest, and the two magpies cried even more happily. As soon as Zhao Mingrui and the others saw the yellow flower snake in the magpie's nest, they were about to beat it to death. Xiao Xiaoxiao: "This snake can't be beaten! Because it can get along peacefully with the little magpie, it means they are not natural enemies!" Xiao Xiaoxiao gently held the magpie's nest and thought about where to put the magpie's nest? Suddenly, he had an idea. He thought of a big willow tree in the Zhao family cemetery on his beam, which was thick and wanted to be hugged by two people with verdant branches. Xiao Xiaoxiao put the magpie's nest on the old willow tree. But Xiao Xiaoxiao was still worried about the yellow flower snake, so she picked it up and put it in a bowl-sized stream in the old willow tree. After doing all this, the two magpies flew to his shoulders and brushed his messy hair with their mouths.

Summer was coming. Every day, Xiao Xiaoxiao was plowing the land on the beam, and she found six magpies chirping at him in the tree. Xiao Xiaoxiao knew that magpies were a big family, parents and four children. He waved happily at them. After another two years, the magpie nest on the big willow tree changed from one to more than a dozen, and flocks of magpies flew around the tree, which became a great local spectacle. What was even more strange was that Xiao Xiaoxiao found that the yellow flower snake often swam under the tree, and those magpies landed beside it, and some even pecked at its body, but it stayed there obediently and looked very useful, which was incredible. If Xiao Xiaoxiao had not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that the snake would get along well with magpies. Later, Xiao Xiaoxiao discovered a secret, and finally solved the mystery of the yellow flower snake and magpie together: in this mountainous area, magpies are most afraid of a kind of raptor called rock carving that lives in the rock peaks. Rock carving specializes in sneak attacks on magpies, crows and other birds as food. Therefore, as soon as they find the rock carving circling in the air, the magpies are scared to hide in the east and west, and slower will become a delicacy in the mouth of the rock carving. One day Xiao Xiaoxiao was plowing the land not far from the big willow tree, when a rock carving suddenly flew in the sky and attacked the magpies on the willow tree. Dozens of magpies hurriedly hid under the willow tree. The rock sculpture swooped down towards the magpie under the tree, but was twisted by something. The rock sculpture had only two wings and flapped hard, but it couldn't get rid of the entanglement of the thing. Xiao Xiaoxiao walked over curiously to take a look, and it was amazing! It turned out that the yellow flower snake held the head of the rock sculpture with its mouth, and the rock sculpture stopped moving after a short time.

Xiao Xiaoxiao finally understood that the yellow flower snake was still the protective god of magpies! With so many magpies living here, Xiao Xiaoxiao felt that it was not good for them to have nothing to eat. Therefore, when corn, millet and sorghum were harvested every year, they had to leave some food as their food, or what if it snowed heavily in winter and they couldn't find anything to eat? This year, the apple trees planted by Zhao Mingrui and Xiao Xiaoxiao had blossomed, and the whole slope was as white as snow. After the flowers fell, there were small green apples adorning the branches. When Xiao Xiaoxiao was on the beam, she saw many big green worms growing an inch long on Zhao Mingrui's apple tree, biting holes in the leaves one by one. When he went to his tree, there was not a single worm. When Zhao Mingrui saw that there were bugs in the fruit tree, he quickly went to the market to buy pesticides, and when he bought them, he sprayed them hard on the apple tree. However, those bugs were not afraid of pesticides at all, and they ate apples after eating the leaves, and hundreds of trees were almost eaten up by bugs. When Zhao Mingrui invited the fruit tree expert to take a look, he found out that the pesticide was fake! After autumn, although there were still many red apples on the tree, none of them were good, all of them had bug eyes, and they were sold for a few cents at a reduced price, but no one came to buy them. Xiao Xiaoxiao was different. Xiao Xiaoxiao's apple tree had no bugs, and the branches and leaves were lush. The apples grew bigger and bigger, and they sold the tree for a good price in autumn! Why does the same piece of land have different results for apples? Xiao Xiaoxiao knew very well in his heart: This is all the credit of these magpies!

Xiao Xiaoxiao had long discovered that the dozens of magpies were catching pests on his apple tree all day long, and the magpies had become the protector of the apple tree! Xiao Xiaoxiao's apple tree was about the same height as Zhao Mingrui's apple tree, and there were no obstacles in the middle, but why didn't the magpies go to Zhao Mingrui's fruit tree to catch insects? It seemed that this little magpie also had a biased eye! The next year, the apple tree was still flourishing. Zhao Mingrui discovered the secret of magpies catching pests for Xiao Xiaoxiao. Zhao Mingrui was very unbalanced: These magpies live on the tree in my cemetery, why don't they catch insects on my fruit tree? Zhao Mingrui thought hard and finally came up with a plan that he thought was good. That is to learn from Xiao Xiaoxiao and take away the magpie's nest and put it on his apple tree. After a day of going up and down the tree, the magpie's nest on the big willow tree was taken away by Zhao Mingrui. However, these magpies would rather sleep on the branches of the willow tree at night than live in the nest of the apple tree. What makes Zhao Mingrui especially angry is that these magpies still only catch bugs on Xiao Xiaoxiao's apple tree, but not on his tree. This year, the apple trees in Zhao Mingrui's house did not bear as many as those of Xiao Xiaoxiao's family, and the apples in Xiao Xiaoxiao's family were not as big as those of Xiao Xiaoxiao's family. And those magpies caught insects for the fruit tree, and Xiao Xiaoxiao did not spray a drop of pesticide. In the spring of the next year, these magpies built nests on the big willow tree again.

Zhao Mingrui hated these magpies to death. This winter, Zhao Mingrui's uncle was gone. Zhao Mingrui's uncle never married and had no children, so Zhao Mingrui took care of the funeral. In order to save money, Zhao Mingrui decided to let go of the old willow tree in Zhao Jiafen to make a coffin for the uncle. Originally, people in Huang Shawo were old and usually had to make pine coffins. Pine coffins are strong and do not like to rot. But a pine coffin costs more than 3,000 yuan. If you use old willows as coffins, you can save more than 2,000 yuan. Zhao Mingrui led a few brothers from the family to Zhao Jiafen to put trees. That day, the willow tree was full of densely packed magpies, who kept calling.

Zhao Mingrui said fiercely, "Where do I see you going this time?" After saying that, he asked someone to let the tree go. After a while, the big willow tree fell with a bang. The magpies also flew to the nearby apple tree with a bang. The big willow tree that fell to the ground made Zhao Mingrui disheartened: there was a hole in the middle of the big willow trunk as thick as a bowl, which was useless at all. Since nothing could be used, he might as well cut the trunk into several pieces and pull it home to burn. Just as everyone was cutting the trunk, the yellow snake was taken out of the trunk by everyone.

This yellow flower snake was in a state of hibernation, coiled in a tree hole as if dead. The magpies standing on the apple tree found the yellow flower snake, and they all flew over. In everyone's jaw-dropping, the magpies flew away with the yellow flower snake in their mouths. This summer, there was a big flood. No one in Huangshawo Village had an accident, but Zhao Mingrui's house was washed down by the flood, and Zhao Mingrui was also killed by the washed house. His wife and son survived because they went back to live in their mother's house. Some people say that the yellow flower snake is the incarnation of the dragon, and the dragon can travel wind and rain. If you offend the Dragon King, you deserve his bad luck.