Chen's book on snakebites.[Photo provided to China Daily]

To avoid diminishing the wild population, Chen decided to raise the rare creatures himself for research at home and for future release into nature.

A Ming landmark

Old wounds

That frightened his wife and daughter, and fueled conflict within the family. But after countless quarrels, Chen insisted on keeping the snakes.

His daughter continued to worry about him, and after her graduation from a medical school in 2001, she gave up a decent job in the city, returned to her parents' home and became her father's assistant.

That decision saved Chen's life.

In 2003, when Chen was releasing into nature a year-old specimen he had raised, it bit him in the middle finger.

Chen underestimated the venom of the small snake and insisted on taking a photo of the wound before getting treatment. But after a few minutes, he felt dizzy and lost consciousness.

His daughter went on squeezing out the venom, and kept applying the herbal formula created by Chen on the wounded finger.

After three days in a state of unconsciousness, Chen finally awoke. But due to a serious infection, the "dead" finger had to be amputated.

To many people's surprise, Chen continued his research after coming back from death's door.

"My wife used to call me a 'cold-blooded animal, just like the snakes'," he recalls, his eyes welling up at the thought of the woman, who passed away in 2006 when Chen was out on a field trip in the mountains.

"Now I don't worry about death," says Chen, "because I have died many times."