"Of course, after more than 20 years, I don't know if the cat is still there before, but now this cat is only two or three years old." Jiao Dad said.
Unexpectedly, the old woman shook her head, "This cat is a male, it was only a female before."
Dad Jiao: "..." Why didn't I know it was only the mother's back then? ! And grandma, you didn't say it back then!
Not paying attention to Dad Jiao's face, Zheng Tan was just puzzled by the words of the man lying on the reclining chair.
What the hell! How does this old woman know the male and female? !
Zheng Tan remembered that he always faced this side when he came here, and, from a human point of view, shouldn't he look at the "back" before confirming the male and female? Besides, Zheng Tan has never been the same as other cats.
Suddenly, Zheng Tan's thoughts galloped. I didn't expect this old woman to be quite wretched.
"Is it scolding me?" The old woman lying on the recliner looked at Zheng Tan and asked Jiao Dad.
Zheng Tan: "..."
Dad Jiao twitched his face, not knowing how to answer.
The old woman didn't seem to have any plans to wait for Dad Jiao's answer, but instead asked, "Have you bought a car yet?"
Dad Jiao nodded, "Well, I bought it a few months ago."
"That's right." The old woman turned to open a cabinet beside the reclining chair, and pulled out a pendant from the drawer and handed it to Dad Jiao, "I'll send 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 were only a few dollars, and the wholesale price was even cheaper. Although the old woman said "send", Zheng Tan thought that if Papa Jiao hadn't brought gifts, the old woman would not even take out a few cents.
After Papa Jiao took the things and thanked them, the old woman smiled so much that her dentures were exposed, and she pouted at Zheng Tan, "Take good care of this cat, it's fate to meet, and it can bring good luck."
The latter sentence Zheng Tan likes to listen to, it can bring good luck and so on, Yuan Zhiyi also said it, Zheng Tan is still a little embarrassed when he thinks of it.
Although Dad Jiao doesn't believe in those illusory things, he has to admit that up to now, his cat has indeed brought a lot of good luck to the family.
"Grandma, go on rest, I won't disturb you." Jiao Dad was about to leave. He knew that the old man's words had always been relatively few, and he had to rest after a while, so he was not going to stay here again.
"Before you leave the village, come here again with this cat," said the old woman lying on the reclining chair.
Although he didn't quite understand what Grandma was going to do, Dad Jiao nodded in agreement.
Zheng Tan looked at the old man and the cat on the reclining chair, turned around and left with Dad Jiao.
After Papa Jiao and Zheng Tan left, the old woman who was lying on the reclining chair with her eyes slightly closed sat up, touched the cat on her lap, and continued to look for fleas for it, "Oh, it's another big one, next time you look for it. Rats with fewer fleas eat."
The three-legged tortoiseshell shook his ears, wondering if he understood.
Over there, Zheng Tan followed Dad Jiao out of the old woman's yard and walked down a different road.
Seeing that he was getting farther and farther from the village, Zheng Tan was very curious about what Dad Jiao was doing. He could see that Dad Jiao had something hidden in his heart.
There is a mountain near the village, which is not big. After all, the surrounding area does not belong to the category of barren mountains. Now many places on the mountain are being developed and utilized, and they are not as wild as they were decades ago.
Zheng Tan followed Dad Jiao around an orchard. Dad Jiao stood there, looked around, sat down beside a big tree, and lit a cigarette. Squatting beside him, Zheng Tan said, "Hei Tan, let me tell you a secret." After saying this, Dad Jiao smiled and said, "Actually, it's not a secret, I've told some people about it. , they just don't believe it."
This is what you've been waiting for!
Zheng Tan regained his senses and braced his ears to listen to what Dad Jiao said next.
"Before, when I was a child, um, I was smaller than Xiaoyuzi. At that time, I was naughty. 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 from the village, but there was nothing for a few days. Some people gave up the harvest, 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 a long time. I was tired and hungry. After a sleep, I didn't have much sense of crisis. Now that I think about it, I really want to die.
When I woke up, it was getting dark. After dinner time, I was anxious and rushed home, but accidentally slipped down a steep slope and sprained my foot. Step into a pothole again.
The pothole is quite deep, at least it was difficult for me to climb out of it at the time. Maybe someone buried something and dug it out, and the pothole was not filled. At that time, I didn’t have much strength, so I couldn’t climb out for a while, and after shouting for a long time, no one came to help. I dig the stones and dirt on the wall of the cave to have a support point when I crawl. When my fingers were bleeding, I heard a cat meowing from the top of the cave, and soon I saw a cat's head. It glanced at me and left. After a while, a thick grass rope tied with firewood was thrown down from it. I grabbed the grass rope and tried my best to climb up. At the same time, I felt someone pulling the rope. It's not big, but it helped me. When I climbed into the pothole, I found that the cat was 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. Not long after my grandmother appeared, she told me that she found a black cat stealing the straw rope she was tying firewood with, so she followed. "
During that special period, Grandma was rejected by the villagers, and no one wanted to contact Grandma at all. Dad Jiao remembered that he and other children in the village threw stones and mud at Grandma's small yard. Later, my grandmother had to go up the mountain temporarily, set up a small shed, and live there alone until the difficult period passed.
Dad Jiao still remembers the time he stayed in the pothole, the hunger, fear, and the coolness brought by the mountain wind.
"Later, Grandma found a cat's tooth on the straw rope. It was broken when the cat was biting and pulling." Jiao Dad flicked the cigarette butt, looked into the distance, and continued to recall.
The thick straw rope weaved by the villagers is very strong, but if you bite it, it will not break your teeth, but if you bite the straw rope and pull hard, you can't tell. The cat's tooth may have been broken when the straw rope was pulled from the firewood stack, or it may have been broken later when it was dragged. Anyway, Papa Jiao appreciates it. It's just that Dad Jiao never saw the black cat again after that.
"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'll show it to you when I go back." Jiao Dad sighed to Zheng.
Nearly 30 years have passed, and Dad Jiao knew that the cat in his memory may have long since disappeared, but the first time he saw the black cat that his wife picked up, he suddenly thought of the cat back then.
The black cat that came from the night, 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 is precisely because of this that Jiao's father, who has never agreed to keep pets since living in a big city, let go after Jiao's mother brought Zheng Tan home. At that time, it was not long after the epidemic panic, and there were two children at home. Jiao's mother really didn't expect Jiao's father to agree. The rest of the Jiao family didn't know the reason.
"When Grandma took me to the village, let me not tell other people. For some things, you can rest assured. If you say it, others may not believe it, but it will cause trouble."
Dad Jiao didn't quite understand it at the time. When he grew up and became sensible, he realized that in those days, it was easy to talk about demons and ghosts, and if it was wrong, it would cause trouble. Later, the special period passed, and people's minds were becoming more and more open. Regardless of whether some phenomena could be explained by science, behaviors would not be too extreme. Even so, Jiao Dad still didn't tell people much about the events of the year. He used to tell people a story, but unfortunately he didn't believe it. And the cat-toothed amber always reminded Jiao Dad that the incident of that year was not a dream.
Jiao Dad also took Zheng Tan to see the place where the pothole was. Every time he came back to the old house, Jiao Dad would come to see it. became an orchard.
Returning to the old house from the mountain, Jiao Dad went to help with the New Year's gifts. Zheng Tan didn't go to catch rabbits with the two children when he had nothing to do. He secretly went to the neighborhood where the grandma lived to hear about this person. Recently, many people in the village who went out to work have returned, and some people come to visit every day. Young people are more open-minded and know that this kind of thing is not as good as before. In big cities, some people are much more arrogant and bold, and they can make a lot of money by talking nonsense. In contrast, this grandma is really low-key. of.
She is not well-known in Fangyang, so she has a little influence in the local village. I heard that I am almost ninety now, and I was not from this village in my early years. The villagers now have some respect for her, and some fear. Now, before anyone in the village goes out to work, they always come to her old man for safety.
Of course, there are also many people who don't believe in this stuff. Science is popularized now, and this thing is also orthodox and unorthodox. Unorthodox is feudal superstition, illegal and criminal. But people's psychology is always like that, and you have to ask for a "just in case" to be at ease.
So don't look at people who say they don't believe them on the surface, they say they are money cheats, they don't walk with the old lady, but there are many people who give money and gifts in private. After a long time, everyone knows it. As some people have said, some things, believers have it, don't believe it, don't.
Although Zheng Tan doesn't know much about this old woman, he can now understand some things based on what he has seen and heard. It doesn't matter if the old woman was abducted or not, but I haven't heard of any bad things happening. Instead, more and more people secretly praise her, which proves that she is indeed capable. Besides, she saved Dad Jiao, and Zheng Tan had a better impression of the old woman just because of this. 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 Dad Jiao, so that Dad Jiao could accept his unique cat so quickly.
Thinking that the old woman asked Dad Jiao to leave the village after the New Year, Zheng Tan couldn't figure out the reason, but according to what Dad Jiao said, the old woman... shouldn't have a bad heart, right? What's more, the three-legged tortoiseshell cat was picked up by the old woman after a leg was broken by someone, so it seems that this person should be not bad.