Strange Life of a Cat

"Of course, after all, more than 20 years have passed. I don't know if the previous cat is still there, but now this cat is only two or three years old." Papa Jiao said.

Unexpectedly, the old woman shook her head, "This cat is a male, before it was only a female."

Father Jiao: "..." Why didn't I know that it was only my mother's back then? ! And grandma, you never said that back then!

Not paying attention to Papa Jiao's expression, Zheng Tan was just puzzled by what the man lying on the couch said.

Fuck! How does this old woman know the father and mother? !

Zheng Tan remembered that when he came here, he was always facing this side, and, from a human point of view, shouldn't he look at the "back" to confirm the parents? Besides, Zheng Tan has never had the chrysanthemum addiction like other cats.

Immediately, Zheng Tan's thoughts galloped forward. I didn't expect this old woman to be quite wretched.

"Is it scolding me?" The old woman lying on the couch looked at Zheng Tan, and asked Jiao Dad.

Zheng Tan: "..."

Papa Jiao's face twitched, and he didn't know how to answer.

The old lady didn't seem to have any intention of waiting for Father Jiao's answer, and instead asked, "Have you bought a car yet?"

Papa Jiao nodded, "Well, it's been a few months since I bought it."

"That's just right." The old woman opened a cabinet next to the reclining chair sideways, took out a pendant from a drawer, and handed it to Papa Jiao, "I'll give it to you."

Zheng Tan glanced at the ordinary-looking pendant. There were many similar pendants on the stalls set up by the students around Chuhua University. They only cost a few dollars, and the wholesale price was cheaper. Although the old woman said "give it", Zheng Tan thought that if Dad Jiao hadn't come over with a gift, the old woman wouldn't even have given out a few cents.

After Papa Jiao took the things and thanked him, the old lady smiled so much that she showed her false teeth, she pouted at Zheng Tan, "Take good care of this cat, it's fate to meet you, and it can bring good luck."

Zheng Tan likes to hear the latter sentence, it can bring good fortune and so on, Yuan Zhiyi also said it, Zheng Tan is still a little embarrassing when I think of it.

Although Papa Jiao doesn't really believe in those illusory things, he has to admit that until now, his cat has indeed brought a lot of good luck to the family.

"Grandma, go ahead and rest, I won't bother you." Papa Jiao was about to say goodbye and leave. He knew that the old man had always spoken very little and had to rest after a while, so he didn't plan to stay here any longer.

"Before you leave the village, take this cat here again." Said the old woman lying on the couch.

Although he didn't quite understand what Grandma was going to do, Papa Jiao still nodded in agreement.

Zheng Tan looked at the old cat and the cat on the reclining chair, then turned around and followed Papa Jiao to leave.

After Papa Jiao and Zheng Tan left, the old lady lying on the recliner with her eyes slightly closed sat up, touched the cat on her lap, and continued to look for fleas on it, "Oh, it's a big one again, next time you find it Rats with fewer fleas will eat."

The three-legged tortoise shell shook its ears, wondering if it understood.

Over there, Zheng Tan followed Papa Jiao after leaving the old woman's yard, and walked to another road that was different from the way he came.

Looking farther and farther away from the village, Zheng Tan was very curious about what Dad Jiao was going to do, he could see that Dad Jiao was hiding something in his heart.

There is a mountain near the village, which is not too big. After all, the surrounding area does not belong to the category of barren mountains and wild mountains. Now many places on the mountain are being developed and utilized, and it is not as wild as it was a few decades ago.

Zheng Tan followed Papa Jiao to an orchard, Papa Jiao stood there, looked around, came to a big tree and sat down, then lit a cigarette, and when the cigarette was almost half smoked, Papa Jiao said Squatting beside him, Zheng sighed, "Heitan, I'll tell you a secret." After saying this, Father Jiao paused, smiled, and said, "It's actually not a secret, I told some people about it. , they just don’t believe it.”

Waiting for this is it!

Zheng Tan came back to his senses, straining his ears to listen to Papa Jiao's next words.

"Before, when I was a child, um, smaller than Xiaoyouzi. I was naughty at the time. There were rumors among the children that there were treasures in the mountains. I went to the mountains to hunt for treasures with a few children in the village, but there was nothing for several days. Harvesting, some people gave up, but I didn't. So one day, I went up the mountain alone when my parents were not paying attention. I didn't harvest for half a day, tired and hungry, and lay down on the grass to sleep after eating a bread After a while, I didn't have much sense of crisis. Now that I think about it, I was really courting death.

When I woke up, I found that the sky was getting dark. After dinner time, I was anxious and hurried home, but accidentally slipped down a steep slope and sprained my foot. Misfortunes never come singly. Step into another pothole.

The pothole was quite deep, at least it was difficult for me to climb out of it at the time. Maybe someone had buried something and dug it out, and the hole was not filled. At that time, I didn't have much strength, and I couldn't climb out for a while, and no one came to help me after shouting for a long time. I picked the stones and dirt on the wall of the cave in order to have a support point when I climbed. When my fingers were bleeding, I heard a cat meowing from above the pothole, and I saw a cat's head after a while. It took a look at me and left. Not long after, a thick straw rope tied with firewood was thrown from above. I grabbed the straw rope and tried to climb up. At the same time, I felt someone pulling the rope with strength It's not big, but it helped me. When I climbed up the pothole, I found that it was a cat pulling the straw rope. The other end of the rope was stuck in a crack in a large rock near the pothole, a very clever cat. It ran away after I climbed up, and grandma appeared not long after. She told me that she found a black cat stealing the straw rope that tied her firewood, so she followed. "

During that special period, grandma was rejected by the villagers, and no one wanted to have contact with grandma. Papa Jiao remembered that he and other children in the village threw stones and mud at grandma's small yard. Later, Grandma had no choice but to temporarily go up the mountain, set up a small shed, and lived there alone until that difficult period passed.

Papa Jiao still remembers the time spent in the pothole, hunger, fear, and the coolness brought by the mountain wind.

"Later, grandma found a cat's tooth on the straw rope, which was broken when the cat was biting and pulling." Papa Jiao flicked the cigarette butt, looked into the distance, and continued to recall.

The thick grass rope woven by the villagers is very strong, but it won't break your teeth if you bite it, but if you bite the straw rope and pull hard, it's not sure. The cat's tooth may have been broken when the straw rope was drawn from the firewood pile, or it may have been broken when it was dragged later. Anyway, Papa Jiao is very grateful for it. But since then, Papa Jiao has never seen that black cat again.

"Grandma melted the rosin, put the cat's tooth in it, and made it into an artificial amber for me... I still keep that, and I will show it to you when I go back." Papa Jiao sighed to Zheng.

Nearly thirty years later, Father Jiao knew that the cat in his memory might no longer exist, but when he saw the black cat picked up by his wife for the first time, he suddenly thought of the one back then.

The black cat that walked from the night and shuttled through the night, even if it stood on the ground and needed to look up at people, its eyes were fearless, even with a condescending aura of disdain for other things, like a cat little leopard.

It was also because of this that Jiao's father, who had always disagreed with keeping pets since he lived in a big city, let go after Jiao's mother brought Zheng Tan home. At that time, not long after the panic of the epidemic had passed, and there were still two children at home, Mom Jiao really didn't expect Dad Jiao to agree. The rest of the Jiao family didn't know the reason.

"When grandma took me to the village, please tell me not to tell other people. There are some things, just rest assured. If you tell them, others may not believe them, but you will be in trouble."

Papa Jiao didn't quite understand it at the time, but when he grew up and became more sensible, he realized that in those days, it was easy to be linked to demons and ghosts, and if it was not done well, it would cause trouble. Later, the special period passed, and people's minds became more and more open. Regardless of whether some phenomena can be explained by science, their behavior will not be too extreme. Even so, Papa Jiao still doesn't tell people much about what happened back then. He once told people a story, but unfortunately he didn't believe it. And the cat-tooth amber always reminded Papa Jiao that the incident back then was not a dream.

Papa Jiao also showed Zheng Tan the place where the pothole was. Every time he came back to the old house, Papa Jiao would come to have a look. It became an orchard and a vegetable field.

Going back to the old house from the mountain, Dad Jiao went to help with the New Year's goods, Zheng Tan didn't have anything to do and went to catch rabbits with the two children, secretly ran to the neighborhood where the old woman lived, and heard about this person. Recently, many people who went out to work in the village have returned, and some people come to visit every day. Young people are more open-minded. They know that things like this are not handled as they used to be. Some people in big cities are much more arrogant and bold. They can make a lot of money with a few words of nonsense. In comparison, this grandma is really low-key. of.

She is not well-known in Yangyang, so she has a little influence in the local village. I heard that he is almost ninety now, and he was not from this village in his early years. The villagers are now in awe and fear of her. Now people in the village will come to her old man to ask for safety before they go to other places to work.

Of course, there are also many people who don’t believe in this stuff, and science is popularized now. Moreover, this stuff can also be divided into orthodox and unorthodox. The unorthodox is feudal superstition and crimes. But people's psychology is always like that, you have to ask "just in case" before you can rest assured.

So don't look at the surface and say that you don't believe it, say it's a money scam, and don't walk around with that old woman, but there are also many people who give money and gifts in private. After a long time, everyone just tacitly agrees. As some people say, there are some things that you believe in, but you don't believe in them.

Although Zheng Tan didn't know much about this old woman, he could understand some things based on what he saw and heard. Regardless of whether the old woman was cheating or not, I didn't hear that any bad things happened. On the contrary, more and more people praised her in private, which proved that she was indeed capable. Besides, she had saved Papa Jiao, just because of this alone, Zheng Tan had a better impression of the old woman, liars and not liars were second to Zheng Tan. What's more, because of what happened back then, maybe she also mentioned a few words to Jiao's father, so that Jiao's father could accept his unique cat so quickly.

Thinking of the old woman asking Dad Jiao to take him there again when he left the village after the new year, Zheng Tan couldn't think of a reason, but according to what Dad Jiao said, the old woman... shouldn't have bad intentions, right? What's more, the three-legged tortoiseshell cat was picked up and raised by the old woman after someone broke one of its legs. From this point of view, this person should be pretty good.

[The following words are not included in chapter V]

(Supplement 1.29). Let’s put the supplementary date in the testimonials. It’s not good to put it in the chapter title. There is no other meaning in writing this supplementary date. Let the updates sync with the date, alas.

I just came back, and the network here in my hometown is not very stable. If there is no update and no single chapter explanation, you can see if there is a post in the book review area to explain.

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