The Witching Snakes 16-18

The Love Story of Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian

Sorry that I’m not updating this substack as much as I usually do. I do have a job now, which has some annoying downtime, but it pays well. Actually that makes the downtime even more annoying. You know how I have been begging for jobs and money to pay my rent. Well, this is the job that’s paying my rent. Only I haven’t been working as many hours as I would like, at least not this week. I’m also hosting for Shabbos and need to clean my place.

I’m also watching Gremlins 2, so I have to watch that. But then I’m back to cleaning. I also made baklava. Hope it turns out. Weird that all the recipes tell you to cook the baklava and then pour syrup over it. I guess that makes sense. It’s just strange.

All that to say that instead of the John Cheever or Tel Aviv Stories article that you are awaiting, I’m going to give you one of those “hey read my old stuff” articles. And in this case, you get the chapters of The Witching Snake where I write the love story that started all of these Bai Suzhen stories. Or I write my version. Actually I mostly play it straight here and just write how Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian meet in the way that it’s often written. Boat Festival, umbrella, etc.

It starts in Part 16.

Then we have the next chapter where Bai Suzhen and Greenie eagerly await Xu Xian to come visit their magic home. Like in the early chapters, Bai Suzhen moves fast. She’s practically proposing marriage on the first date.

Trouble comes when the marriage is secured, but since these are millennia old snakes that have become human women, they have a rather cheerful disregard for property laws.

Enjoy. Definitely if you like what you read, get a paid subscription so you can read the whole book (as well as my other fiction entries)

In honor of my mayor hosting a fucking Nazi piece of shit for Ramadan, please check out Love Stories to Read While Shitting in Zohran Mamdani’s Mouth. It’s also available in Audiobook.

Here’s another Bai Suzhen book. It’s also independently published.

If you don’t mind giving Amazon more money, buy Nothing in the Basement by Romie Stott.